Terrifying Addiction Remedies That Didn’t Work

by AdamS on September 3, 2012

Drug and alcohol rehab programs have progressed very far through history and today’s programs are not only effective, but also relatively pain free.  Treatments have not always been so great however, many drug treatment programs throughout history were very dangerous and ineffective.  Treatments have progressed from blood-letting and leech application to the current relaxing drug rehab florida programs. Before scientists perfected the treatments they have today, they used a lot of trial and error sessions to learn from their mistakes. Here’s a look at a few of the most unorthodox treatments in history.

Treatments for Alcoholism

Among the most disturbing treatments for alcoholism was a serum developed from antibodies in horse blood.  Scientists would have horses drink alcohol until they became dependent on it, they would then take blood from the dependent horses and extract the “alcohol antibodies” from it and then apply the extracted serum to open wounds on humans to vaccinate them against alcoholism. Of course this treatment did not work.  Another treatment for alcoholism that was used during the 1950s was to treat the disease with LSD.  Doctors would use hallucinogens like LSD or psilocybin to curb alcohol use in their patients.  The treatment may have actually been effective but caused a multitude of other problems for the patients.

Treatments for Drug Abuse

Drug abuse treatments have been even scarier than alcohol treatments through history.  In the early 1900s Charles Towns invented The Belladonna Cure, taken from the atropa belladonna plant which is also known as the deadly nightshade.  The effects of belladonna include confusion, hallucinations, and delirium.  This was mixed with some other poisonous berries to induce vomiting and diarrhea.  The treatment was described as ‘purge and puke’, as a dose of the medicine would be administered every hour for up to fifty hours until the patient had cleaned out their system completely.  Another disturbing treatment for drug addiction was experimented with at the Colorado State Penitentiary during the 1950s.  To cure drug addicts in the prison, the doctors at the penitentiary would create blisters on the patients stomach and then use hypodermic needles to extract the fluid from the blisters.  The fluid would then be injected into the patient’s blood stream.  This process was repeated five times a day for about 5 days and turned out to do little to curb the prisoner’s addiction to narcotics.

Today, scientists understand a lot more about what causes addiction and exactly how to treat it through drug treatment programs, but the system is still continually changing. Even now, some doctors still treat heroin addiction with methadone, which is a chemical that can be as addictive and destructive as the heroin itself.  The treatments are definitely a lot less terrifying at a drug rehab florida now than they were over 50 years ago, when doctors thought that addiction could be cured by injecting affected humans with antibodies from horse blood.  Individuals considering treatment now can rest easier knowing that they aren’t being used as guinea pigs to develop some miracle treatment. Go to https://www.thewatershed.com/resource/drug-treatment-programs/ for more info on drug treatment programs.

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