<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt"><FONT face=Calibri>This thesis explores the histories of mild to moderate depression and the use of over the counter (OTC) St. John¿s wort (St. John¿s wort) during the 1990s. In doing so it not only investigates the diagnosis and definition of mental illnesses, it also raises questions about the interface between conventional and alternative medicine. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt"><FONT face=Calibri>Using a variety of printed sources, including popular media articles, scientific and medical journal publications, and St. John¿s wort self-help books, a number of historical themes are explored. <o:p></o:p></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt"><FONT face=Calibri>This thesis takes issue with existing medical historical studies of depression. Firstly it is argued that they have presented progressive depression histories. Secondly, it is suggested that they have retrospectively diagnosed depression on the basis of similar symptoms. It is therefore argued that illness is specific to the time in which it exists and should be understood within its own historical timeframe. During the 1990s standardised St. John¿s wort was promoted as a natural and safe remedy. Adverts and media reports also highlighted the fact that it had a long medical history. <o:p></o:p></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt"><FONT face=Calibri>Although this thesis establishes that the plant has been traditionally used to treat physical illnesses, it seems that a growing distrust of conventional antidepressants, combined with an established interest in alternative medicine, encouraged some lay people to use the remedy to treat mild mood disorders. <o:p></o:p></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt"><FONT face=Calibri>It is further argued that lay people have a history of self-treating minor mental illnesses using preparatory and OTC remedies such as preparatory nerve tonics. Not only did lay people desire autonomous treatments, it also seems that standardised St. John¿s wort provided a functional role as an OTC remedy. By the 1990s the concepts of responsible self-care and self-treatment were being actively encouraged by medical authorities. <o:p></o:p></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt"><FONT face=Calibri>Therefore this thesis reclassifies the passive mild to moderately depressed patient as an active consumer. Following an analysis of the popular media it is suggested that the 1990s coverage of depression and its treatments was confusing. Indeed, depression and its treatment with conventional medicines and St. John¿s wort were sometimes presented as part of a wider life style choice. <o:p></o:p></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt"><FONT face=Calibri>Finally, it is argued that by the 1990s standardised St. John¿s wort received the same scientific and medical scrutiny as conventional medicines. It is therefore suggested that the remedy represents a situation in which the boundaries between conventional and alternative medicines have become increasingly indistinguishable.<o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
...MoreDescription Defense date not indicated; cited by UMI in 2010. Cited in ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing. Proquest Document ID: 1124120700.
Similar Citations
Book
Bita Moghaddam;
(2021)
Ketamine
(/isis/citation/CBB929329054/)
Book
Shorter, Edward;
(2013)
How Everyone Became Depressed: The Rise and Fall of the Nervous Breakdown
(/isis/citation/CBB001422179/)
Article
McGoey, Linsey;
(2010)
Profitable Failure: Antidepressant Drugs and the Triumph of Flawed Experiments
(/isis/citation/CBB000953791/)
Book
Timothy R. Tomlinson;
Olayiwola Akerele;
(1998)
Medicinal Plants: Their Role in Health and Biodiversity
(/isis/citation/CBB424410410/)
Article
Molaro, Aurelio;
(2020)
La ‘logica immanente’ della follia: Biochimica e fenomenologia in Roland Kuhn (1912-2005)
(/isis/citation/CBB888077865/)
Article
Lavine, Matthew;
(2014)
The Science of Automatic Precision: The Rise and Fall of Spectro-Chrome Therapy
(/isis/citation/CBB001201055/)
Article
Souza, Eduardo F. Alexander Amaral de;
Luz, Madel Therezinha;
(2009)
Bases socioculturais das práticas terapêuticas alternativas
(/isis/citation/CBB000932955/)
Article
Hawgood, Barbara J.;
(2013)
Rosemary Biggs MD FRCP (1912--2001) and Katharine Dormandy MD FRCP (1926--78): from Laboratory To Treatment and Care of People with Haemophilia
(/isis/citation/CBB001200766/)
Article
Kazanjian, Powel;
(2014)
The AIDS Pandemic in Historic Perspective
(/isis/citation/CBB001420763/)
Book
D'Adesky, Anne-Christine;
(2004)
Moving Mountains: The Race to Treat Global AIDS
(/isis/citation/CBB000630051/)
Book
Mold, Alex;
Berridge, Virginia;
(2010)
Voluntary Action and Illegal Drugs: Health and Society in Britain since the 1960s
(/isis/citation/CBB001230921/)
Article
Timmermann, Carsten;
(2001)
Rationalizing “Folk Medicine” in Interwar Germany: Faith, Business, and Science at “Dr. Madaus & Co.”
(/isis/citation/CBB000770474/)
Book
Alan Whiteside;
(2017)
HIV & AIDS: A Very Short Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB155086702/)
Book
Eugene Raikhel;
(2016)
Governing Habits: Treating Alcoholism in the Post-Soviet Clinic
(/isis/citation/CBB191149414/)
Article
Prud'homme, Julien;
(2011)
What Is a “Health” Professional? The Changing Relationship of Occupational Therapists and Social Workers to Therapy and Healthcare in Quebec, 1940--1985
(/isis/citation/CBB001250782/)
Article
Kaisa Harju;
(2020)
Between Donor Interest, Global Models and Local Conditions: Treatment and Decision-Making in the Somalia-Finland Tuberculosis Control Project, 1981–3
(/isis/citation/CBB402892466/)
Book
Smith, Matthew;
(2011)
An Alternative History of Hyperactivity: Food Additives and the Feingold Diet
(/isis/citation/CBB001420219/)
Book
Halliwell, Martin;
(2013)
Therapeutic Revolutions: Medicine, Psychiatry, and American Culture, 1945--1970
(/isis/citation/CBB001550188/)
Book
Fullwiley, Duana;
(2012)
The Enculturated Gene: Sickle Cell Health Politics and Biological Difference in West Africa
(/isis/citation/CBB001250997/)
Book
Susan E. Cayleff;
(2016)
Nature's Path: A History of Naturopathic Healing in America
(/isis/citation/CBB757429927/)
Be the first to comment!