Drugs for mental illnesses in ancient greek medicine.

Drugs with psychedelic, hypnotic, narcotic, analgesic, suppressive, euphoric and stimulating effects were used in various ways during the ancient times. We can classify drug use in ancient times into two main categories. On the one hand, ancient physicians prescribed drugs based on their pharmaceutical-therapeutic actions. On the other hand, people not pertaining to medicine and not relating to its accurate implementation often abused drugs to achieve an euphoric state of mind, either for personal gratification or as an indispensable element of religion and mythology. Ancient Greek medical literature contains ample prescriptions and recipes indicating that plants were the essential components of drugs. Pedanius Dioscorides dedicated his lifetime's work to the synthesis of ancient drugs. One can find a plethora of information concerning the production methods and the plants used in drugs for the treatment of psychiatric diseases. These were herbs like black and white hellebore, mandrake, hyoscyamus (henbane), Papaver somniferum (also known as opium poppy), Strychnos, Frankincense-tree and dorycnium. The preparation of narcotics included the addition of other elements, mainly wine, to the opus of plants or to their extracts. Drugs were produced via methods of dehumidification/desiccation, grinding, squeezing or boiling of the plants' roots with a formation of a juice, oil or mush extract. In addition, drugs could also be inhaled if burnt. Many physicians of antiquity, such as Hippocrates, Galen, Ctesias and Aretaeus of Cappadocia, all refer to many of these aforementioned drugs analyzing the different symptoms which they could address, and the risks accompanying their use. Physicians of antiquity used drugs for the treatment of somatic, as well as psychiatric disorders. Most of these drugs affected the central nervous system. Taking advantage of their analgesic properties, physicians used them for the management of severe and chronic painful conditions. The hypnotic effects of some drugs were desirable in order to be used as anesthetics for surgical operations and cauterization. Drug use was also established in the initial treatment of epilepsy and seizures, regardless of their cause. Public rituals and mythology were the two main contexts in which drug use flourished, outside the realms of medicine. The psychotropic and especially the hallucinatory effects of drugs caused the person under their influence to lose control, rendering him incapable of governing his actions and thoughts. These consciousness-altering medications were frequently the central focus of mythology. In this case, one would dictate and give orders to another person, which under any other circumstances would not be carried out. This led to the formation of the concept of the magic potion. Theophrastus frequently referred to magic potions.

From thyroid cartilage to thyroid gland.

The ancient Greek physicians skipped the description of thyroid gland probablydue to their difficultly to understand the anatomy and the existence of this organ.Although the ancient physicians had described the disease bronchocele (Greek:Βρογχοκήλη), this disease did not correspond exactly to goitre. The first officialdescription of this gland was made by Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564). Thomas Wharton (1614-1673) in his work Adenographia was the one who coined the term 'Glandulae thyreoidea'.

The dose response principle from philosophy to modern toxicology: The impact of ancient philosophy and medicine in modern toxicology science.

Since ancient times the concept of dose response, from a toxicological perspective, has been a matter of concern. Already by the 8th century BC and over the years, many enlightened people have attempted to interpret this phenomenon, observing and coming across its results and practical implementation through exposure to chemical substances, either from natural or synthetic sources. Nowadays, the environmental exposure of human populations to chemicals in terms of quantity and quality might differ. Nevertheless, dose response still remains an issue joining hands with scientific and technological progress. The aim of the present review is not only to briefly recount the history of the dose response concept, from ancient time theories to novel approaches, but also to draw the outline of challenges and requirements toxicology science needs to fulfill.

[Psychosomatic disorders in ancient Greek medicine].

The concept of psychosomatic disorders, as defined by modern medicine, was difficult to be perceived by the ancient Greek physicians. Two main reasons contributed to this. One was that physicians in Greek antiquity had formed the idea that the mental illnesses that were recognized at that time, namely mania, melancholy, frenzy, caros, lethargy, apoplexy, but even epilepsy, was the result of a disturbance of the essential elements of the body, the balance of them contributed to the preservation of health. Thus, depending on the school of medical thought of each physician in antiquity, mental and corporal illnesses were the result of various disorders such as the dyscrasia of humors for the physicians of the Dogmatic school that followed the Hippocratic principles or the disorder of the qualitative characteristics of the humor and the pneuma (air), as the physicians of the Pneumatic School considered, but also of the stenosis or the expansion of the pores as the physicians of the Methodic school thought. Although there was the perception that the diseases were the result of various combinations of the previous theories, as concluded by the physicians who constituted the Eclectic school. The second reason was that ancient physicians could not perceive the autonomy of man's psychic world as an element of human nature in which emotional distress and irrational mental processing of stimuli from the social, cultural and natural environment of the individual would be aggravating to the challenge of mental imbalance. Nevertheless, many physicians such as physicians who wrote various work of Corpus Hippocraticum, Soranus of Ephesus (1st - 2nd c. AD) Galen (1st - 2nd c. AD), Aretaeus of Cappadocia (1st - 2nd or 4th c. AD) and Caelius Aurelianus (5th c. AD) did not forget to describe in their works psychosomatic disorders as they are defined by modern medicine. In their works there are the observations about intense sweating, tremor, eating disorders, hysteria and even death as a result of an intense and long psychological unrest. These corporal symptoms, although were onset due to a psychological unequilibrium they could not been listed by the ancient Greek physicians in any of the mental diseases as they were defined in antiquity. The psychological disturbance which could provoke the above corporal disorders arose by various phobias, shame, sorrow, anger, envy, excessive drinks and food, excessive sexual desire, passion for gambling and anxiety of everyday life.

Hippocratic views in the treatment of rectal prolapse.

Known since antiquity, rectal prolapse was first studied systematically by Hippocrates (460-377 BC) who recognized the predisposing factors and proposed several therapeutic approaches such as defecation positions, manual retraction and specific herbal or mineral based anti-haemorrhagic and pain-killing poultices. Hippocratic medicine avoided invasive surgical procedures probably due to a lack of knowledge in human anatomy. However, Hippocrates' views astonishingly lasted in time, presenting similarities to current medical theories on rectal prolapse.

Dreams in ancient Greek Medicine.

Dreams preoccupied the Greek and Roman world in antiquity, therefore they had a prominent role in social, philosophical, religious, historical and political life of those times. They were considered as omens and prophetic signs of future events in private and public life, and that was particularly accentuated when elements of actions which took place in the plot of dreams were associated directly or indirectly with real events. This is why it was important to use them in divination, and helped the growth of superstition and folklore believes. Medicine as a science and an anthropocentric art, could not ignore the importance of dreams, having in mind their popularity in antiquity. In ancient Greek medicine dreams can be divided into two basic categories. In the first one -which is related to religious medicine-dreams experienced by religionists are classified, when resorted to great religious sanctuaries such as those of Asclepius (Asclepieia) and Amphiaraos (Amfiaraeia). These dreams were the essential element for healing in this form of religious medicine, because after pilgrims underwent purifications they went to sleep in a special dwelling of the sanctuaries called "enkoimeterion" (Greek: the place to sleep) so that the healing god would come to their dreams either to cure them or to suggest treatment. In ancient Greek literature there are many reports of these experiences, but if there may be phenomena of self-suggestion, or they could be characterized as propaganda messages from the priesthood of each sanctuary for advertising purposes. The other category concerns the references about dreams found in ancient Greek medical literature, where one can find the attempts of ancient Greek physicians to interpret these dreams in a rational way as sings either of a corporal disease or of psychological distress. This second category will be the object of our study. Despite the different ways followed by each ancient Greek physician in order to explain dreams, their common intention was to give a rational answer for the creation and content of dreams setting aside any supernatural beliefs. In addition they tried to explain in a scientific way the correlation that could have emerged between the story that took place in dreams and the events that happened in everyday life. Nevertheless, ancient Greek physicians focused especially on nightmares, which were associated with physical problems. For those physicians these nightmares included information about the corporal disease of the patient, which had a reflection in the dream, and they could help them to diagnose the problem in order to restore balance of the body.

Ophthalmic malignancies in antiquity as depicted in two terracotta figurines.

Ocular and orbital wall cancers were recognized by the physicians of the antiquity as incurable, lethal, and non-operable malignant entities. Paul of Aegina (7(th)c AD) was the first to refer to this type of cancer and proposed only some palliative measures, while the same approach was also preserved by Theophanes Nonnus (10(th)c AD). However, two terracotta figurines of the Hellenistic period (323-30 BC) which depicted tumorous malformations in the eye area, raise a scientific debate on the matter. Hellenic art, once more contributed in a didactic way to preserve medical knowledge of the past, and served as an auxiliary tool in order to facilitate medical study.

The medical-religious practice of votive offerings and the representation of a unique pathognomonic one inside the asclepieion of corinth.

Votive offerings to the healing gods were a common religious custom for the ill believers to achieve the expected cure. The dedication of votive offerings began in Prehistoric Crete and continued during the Classical Period, mainly connected with the god Asclepius. Most offerings presented healthy members, while in some rare cases a disease had been displayed. A unique votive offering, found in the Asclepieion of Corinth, presented an anomaly, bringing to light the religious beliefs of the era. The custom of votive offerings was absorbed by the Orthodox Christians and still remains a common practice.

Suicide in ancient Greece.

The theme of suicide appears several times in ancient Greek literature. However, each such reference acquires special significance depending on the field from which it originates. Most of the information found in mythology, but the suicide in a mythological tale, although in terms of motivation and mental situation of heroes may be in imitation of similar incidents of real life, in fact is linked with the principles of the ancient Greek religion. In ancient drama and mainly in tragedies suicide conduces to the tragic hypostasis of the heroes and to the evolution of the plot and also is a tool in order to be presented the ideas of poets for the relations of the gods, the relation among gods and men and the relation among the men. In ancient Greek philosophy there were the deniers of suicide, who were more concerned about the impact of suicide on society and also these who accepted it, recognizing the right of the individual to put an end to his life, in order to avoid personal misfortunes. Real suicides will be found mostly from historical sources, but most of them concern leading figures of the ancient world. Closer to the problem of suicide in the everyday life of antiquity are ancient Greek medicines, who studied the phenomenon more general without references to specific incidents. Doctors did not approve in principal the suicide and dealt with it as insane behavior in the development of the mental diseases, of melancholia and mania. They considered that the discrepancy of humors in the organ of logic in the human body will cause malfunction, which will lead to the absurdity and consequently to suicide, either due to excessive concentration of black bile in melancholia or due to yellow bile in mania. They believed that greater risk to commit suicide had women, young people and the elderly. As therapy they used the drugs of their time with the intention to induce calm and repression in the ill person, therefore they mainly used mandragora. In general, we would say that there were many reasons to suicide someone in antiquity. Very important factor was to avoid captivity and the consequent overcrowding of indignity, especially for politicians and military leaders. Also intention in these circumstances was to avoid torture and the disgrace of rape. Strong grief is another reason, as in case of death of family members. The erotic disappointment had place in ancient suicides, which concerned both men and women, while there were also suicide for financial reasons. Especially for the elderly, the despair of the anility in conjunction with physical illness and cachexia, were important factors for these people to decide thee suicidal. Finally, the methods of suicide fitted their epoch, but bear resemblance to those of the modern time. Poisoning was very common to both men and women but equally popular in both sexes was also the hanging. It was not unusual to fall from a high in order to reach the death, while stabbing a sword in the body for self killing was widespread in men and soldiers.

The fascinating germ theories on cancer pathogenesis.

For more than 100 years, the germ theory of cancer, proposing that microorganisms were at the origin of the disease, dominated medicine. Several eminent scientists like Etienne Burnet, Mikhail Stepanovich Voronin, Charles-Louis Malassez, and Francis-Peyton Rous argued on the pathogenesis presenting their theories that implicated cocci, fungi and parasites. The impact of these theories was culminated by the Nobel Prize in 1926 that was attributed to the Danish scientist Johannes Fibiger for his work on the nematode Spiroptera as a causative agent in cancer. Even if those theories were the result of fantasy and misinterpretation, they paved the way for the scientific research in oncology.