Lucky for us, we live in a time where medicine and science have made great strides in the development of effective treatments to diseases that were once fatal. Nowadays, many diseases and disorders are alleviated with pills, injections or ointments. Those that require surgical procedures are carried out with lower risk than ever before.

In the past however, many of the treatments utilized by medical physicians were almost as harmful as the condition they were meant to cure. These procedures were often highly invasive and ineffective and many patients died as a result of them. Methods in the psychiatric field were particularly bizarre and often exhibited a cruel lack of regard for the mentally ill. Many unfortunate patients were left disfigured or had their personalities irreversibly altered as a result of the procedures undergone and the benefits were often nominal or nil. Here are some bizarre treatments that have been employed to treat mental illness in the past.