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Aretaeus of Cappadocia, the Greek physician who studied patients today presumed to have had bipolar disorder. Mood disorders were frequently described in Greco-Roman medical literature of the Roman Imperial era, including a condition resulting in poor appetite, lethargy, sleeplessness, irritability, agitation, long-lasting fears, and hopelessness, and melancholia, which is now known as depression.
Treatment of mental illness in ancient times was often linked to religion.Hippocrates [4] was one of the leading faces when battling with mental illness, and it is mentioned in the textbook Religion and Philosophy: Belief and Knowledge in the Classical Age, his strong belief in the gods and the power they hold in being able to heal and help people.
Studies indicate that lead was very prominent in Roman beverages. This is mostly due to the lead-based storage containers that were popular during the time. [6] Some scholars speculate that the levels of alcohol consumed on a daily basis were more to blame for the health ailments of the aristocrats of Rome, with the average consumption rate being approximately 3 bottles of wine a day. [6]
The later Roman physician Galen also discussed people with disabilities in his works on anatomy, claiming that both physical and mental impairments resulted from physical imbalances of the four humors. [2] As such, he held to the traditional triad of melancholy, mania, and phrenitis as the three categories of mental disorder. [3]
The Roman Empire was a complex and vigorous combination of Greek and Roman cultural elements [1] forged through centuries of contact. Later Latin authors, notably Cato and Pliny , believed in a specific traditional Roman type of healing based on herbs, chants, prayers and charms easily available to and by the head of household.
The Roman author and natural philosopher Pliny the Elder was a vocal critic, suggesting that Greek doctors were unskilled and motivated by profit rather than healing. In his Natural History , Pliny expressed concerns about Greek practitioners, accusing them of exploiting patients rather than genuinely caring for their health.
The word asylum didn't connote psychiatric hospitals and mental illness until the turn of the 18th century. Even then, British reformers demanded " moral asylum " and more humane treatment for ...
Aretaeus (Ancient Greek: Ἀρεταῖος) is one of the most celebrated of the ancient Greek physicians.Little is known of his life. He was ethnically Greek, born in the Roman province of Cappadocia, Asia Minor (modern day Turkiye), [1] [2] [3] and most likely lived in the second half of the second century AD. [4]