Insulin shock therapy

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Insulin dosage book and syringes from the Schussenried State Psychiatric Hospital

The insulin shock therapy ( insulin coma therapy , ICT, or Deep insulin coma therapy , DICT) was in psychiatry to the proposal of Manfred Sakel used since 1933 to treat the symptoms of diseases such as psychosis , depression or drug addiction to deal with. It was partly used together with the forerunners of today's electroconvulsive therapy ( combination shock ). Insulin shock therapy, also known as insulin shock for short , has disappeared from everyday psychiatric life today. In older literature, the procedure is also called insulin cure or insulin coma therapy .

Action

By the administration of insulin , a was hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) artificially induced and the patient in an over several minutes coma maintained. This could also lead to a seizure . Whether the seizure or the hypoglycaemia was decisive for the therapeutic effect remained controversial. The condition was eventually resolved by an injection of glucagon and the patient regained consciousness. The glucagon stimulates the body to release glucose from its glucose stores, which causes the blood sugar level to rise again to normal.

Spread and consequences

Insulin coma therapy was a recognized and widespread form of treatment for schizophrenia and depression in psychiatry for a number of years (from around 1935 to 1955) , at times it was even considered the standard therapy until its ineffectiveness was finally known. The mortality of the method was 1%, plus an unknown number of irreversible brain damage. Insulin shock therapy was completely abandoned and replaced by electroconvulsive therapy and later by modern psychotropic drugs. Well-known patients of this therapy were the singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt and the mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jonathan Pimm: Profile: Dr Bourne's identity -credit where credit's due. In: The Psychiatric Bulletin. 38, 2014, p. 83, doi : 10.1192 / pb.bp.113.046060 .
  2. ^ Kingsley Jones: Insulin coma therapy in schizophrenia. In: Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 93, 2016, p. 147, doi : 10.1177 / 014107680009300313 .

literature

  • Hans Bangen: History of the drug therapy of schizophrenia. Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-927408-82-4 , pp. 43-56

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