22. The treatment of mental disorders was dominated by religious thought
Mental disorders were for the most part regarded in the medieval world as visitations from Satan or one of his many servants. They entered the body through the intercession of witches, warlocks, demons, imps, evil spirits and fairies, or even Satan himself. Many physicians of the medieval period were also priests of the church, or monks, and fought mental disorders by fighting the evil which created them. The only recognized spiritual cure came through prayer, incantations, or outright exorcisms. Lay physicians recognized that there could be other causes for mental disorders, related to the brain, and developed a treatment to release the problem which was, in their minds, also caused by an imbalance of the bodily humors.
Besides the medically accepted methods of rebalancing the humors, including bleeding, purging, and application of laxatives, surgeons developed a procedure to open the skull to allow the evil spirits within to exit the body. Known as trepanning, a hole was bored in the head, a procedure often prescribed for the treatment of epileptic fits and other convulsions or tremors. Women were adjudged to be much more prone to all forms of mental disorders, due to the menstrual cycle disrupting the balance of humors. Other physicians, particularly those who subscribed to the theories of Galen, linked mental disorders to malfunctioning organs, especially the heart, spleen, and liver.