Insulin Therapy

It was a very common practice in the past to treat patients who are suffering from depressions and for those who have schizophrenia. The first research and development was conducted in Germany and after immigration of scientist to United States it became a common practice in US. Insulin therapy was involved injecting patients with insulin, the pancreatic hormone that helps control blood glucose levels.

The therapy was discovered in 1927 and further developed in the 1940s and 1950s after the accidental discovery that seizures induced by an overdose of insulin had a beneficial effect on the symptoms of schizophrenia. Unlike ECT, large doses of insulin trigger seizures by causing hypoglycemia (abnormally low level of glucose in the blood). Severe or prolonged hypoglycemia can lead to mental confusion, hallucinations, convulsions, and eventually deep coma as the nervous system is deprived of the glucose needed for its normal metabolic activities. Despite initial enthusiasm for insulin therapy, its popularity declined when its effects were found to be temporary.