During the 1920s and 1930s several somatic treatments were widely used to treat mental disorders. Give a brief description of the procedure and the rationale for the following: fever therapy, insulin coma therapy, and lobotomy.

What will be an ideal response?

(1) Fever therapy involved taking blood from people with malaria and injecting it into people with psychiatric disorders so they would develop a fever. This method was used because the symptoms of some people with mental disorders had disappeared after they became ill with typhoid fever. (2) Insulin coma therapy involved injecting insulin into psychiatric patients. These injections lower the sugar content of the blood and induce a hypoglycemic state and a deep coma. The method was used because mental changes had been noted in some diabetic drug addicts who were treated with insulin. (3) A lobotomy involves inserting a sharp knife through a hole bored in a patient's skull. Nerve fibers between the frontal lobes and the rest of the brain were cut. This surgical procedure had led to a reduction of negative emotions in chimpanzees.