Timeline: Treatments for Mental Illness. 2002.
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Timeline: Treatments for Mental Illness 400 B.C. -1949 | 1950s -1992 400 B.C. The Greek physician Hippocrates treats mental disorders as diseases to be understood in terms of disturbed physiology, rather than reflections of the displeasure of the gods or evidence of demonic possession, as they were often treated in Egyptian, Indian, Greek, and Roman writings. Later, Greek medical writers set out treatments for mentally ill people that include quiet, occupation, and the use of drugs such as the purgative hellebore. Family members care for most people with mental illness in ancient times. Middle Ages In general, medieval Europeans allow the mentally ill their freedom --granted they are not dangerous. However, less enlightened treatment of people with mental disorders is also prevalent, with those people often labeled as witches and assumed to be inhabited by demons. Some religious orders, which care for the sick in general, also care for the mentally ill. Muslim Arabs, who establish asylums as early as the 8th century, carry on the quasi-scientific approach of the Greeks. 1407 The first European establishment specifically for people with mental illness is probably established in Valencia, Spain, in 1407.

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