A PSYCHIATRIC-HOSPITAL 100 YEARS AGO .2. PATIENTS, TREATMENT, AND DAILY-LIFE

Data from archival sources were used to determine the kinds of patient s treated at the St. Louis City (later St. Louis County) Insane Asylum , the treatments they received, activities of daily life in the asylum , and political factors affecting operation of the asylum in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Data from patient records, journal and newspaper articles, and annual reports of asylum superintendents from the period were analyzed. The authors conclude that although much has changed in the operation of public psychiatric hospitals in the past 1 00 years, some themes, including inappropriate referrals of forensic c ases to psychiatric hospitals, problems of discharging long-stay patie nts, and the media's tendency to sensationalize events and conditions in hospitals, remain the same.