The Drugs in Psychiatric Medicine during the Meiji Period --Research Using Medical Documents--

Abstract

Introduction: During the Meiji Period, there were no effective drugs based on dopamine or monoamines for psychiatric diseases. In this study, the author investigated the drugs that psychiatrists prescribed for patients and how they were used during the Meiji period in Japan. Methods: The author researched documents of the National Diet Library Digital collection and German Pharmacopoeia using Google Scholar. These were medical books and not pharmaceutical materials, except for the pharmacopeias. Results and Discussion: During the Meiji Period, anesthetics and hypnotics were mainly used in psychiatric medicine; especially, opioids (e.g., opium, morphine, etc.), belladonna alkaloids (e.g., scopolamine) and halogen compounds were prescribed. Psychiatrists did not prescribe traditional Japanese medicines and rather used European drugs. These drugs had no physiological actions for dopamine or monoamines, but they helped the patients rest and delayed the psychiatric symptoms. In the first decade of the 20th century, barbiturates and other hypnotics were developed by several European pharmaceutical companies. Thereafter, psychiatrists could treat their patients using those drugs. They, the psychiatrists, also believed that brain blood flow is a cause of psychiatric diseases and used cardiovascular agents like digitalis to control blood circulation. Shuzo KURE, the father of modern psychiatric medicine in Japan, started the patients' human rights movement and promoted improvements in treatment. These drugs supported KURE's actions in the area of psychiatric medicines.