Thread: Regency Research

Afsaneh here, a new user as of today!
I've been struggling to find details in certain spheres of reency life. I was hoping someone could help me?

In 1810-1830 if someone was emotionally suffering ie - when they are shut down
emotionally due to a traumatic experience, then what would be done medically?
Smelling salts would be of no use, i assume.

Thank you!

Throughout medical history, even today, doctors are prone to treat symptoms rather than causes. So any kind of stimulant to bring a person out of their lethargy would be a likely course of action. Any time after 1850, a doctor would probably try one or more of the various narcotics to stimulate their patient, but 1830 is probably too early for that to be a mainstream cure yet. I don't think opium made it into European culture quite that early. Opium came from India and India was a British colony. You might get away with a doctor trying opium as a new, mysterious wonder drug he had recently learned about on a trip to India. No one else would have heard about it yet. Alcohol was considered a stimulant and would probably be used by many doctors of that time to treat what doctors would probably call lethargy. And bleeding was still the magic cure all for everything that ailed a person. A doctor would probably try smelling salts. You're right, smelling salts would not treat the underlying psychiatric condition, but doctors are more motivated to treat the outward symptoms. Then, as now, medicine is a business. Doctors make their money by keeping their patients, or the person paying the bill, happy. Look at the Michael Jackson case. There was a doctor who kept his patient happy rather than doing what was in his patient's best interests. Is your patient a woman? So the doctor's bill would be paid by her husband or her father? The doctor would be motivated to keep the husband/father happy. The husband/father would want to see his wife/daughter come out of her lethargy so the doctor would prescribe some kind of stimulant. Good luck.

CM

The traveling "Doctor" would offer opium, morphine based elixirs to cure all ailments,
not sure when this started.

A Brief History of Opium
Says Opium was big in England in this period.

British opium imports rose from a brisk 91,000lb in 1830 to an astonishing 280,000lb in 1860.

In North America, the initial history of Papaver somniferum was somewhat more peaceful. During the first few centuries of European settlement, opium poppies were widely cultivated. Early settlers dissolved the resin in whisky to relieve coughs, aches and pains.

I would say probably a morphine or Opium based medicine would probably have been given. The way this article describes the view by Dr's it would be a great help to the mentally ill as long as they were not uncontious. (unhealthy sleep plus medicine causing more sedation could mean death)

best example: The author of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821) quote from link above. (to long to post)