Jane's Illness: Home Care, Her Doctor & Her Caretakers
Vasily Polenov, The Patient, public domain Over the past few weeks, we've discovered that Jane Darragh, my great-great grandmother who died of acute mania, may have had multiple episodes of the disease. Her children's births were separated by several years in some cases—unusual for the time—suggesting that she experienced infertility, miscarriages, or stillbirths during her childbearing years. And we learned that Jane likely supported her husband Charles' blacksmith career by caring for their home and four children. This week, we'll look at whether Jane was institutionalized for her mania, what her treatment might have been, and who her physician was. It does not appear that Jane was ever institutionalized for her illness, at least for the episode prior to her death . Medical practice of the day suggested there were two options for treating acute mania; the first was to treat the person in the home if they were amenable, for example, willing to eat food offered or...
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