Castration cures epilepsy?

[Andrew (imported)]

http://www.umich.edu/%7Eece/student_pro ... ation.html

[happousai (imported)]

I remember reading that decades ago, doctors would perform clitoridectomy (removal of the clitoris) on women because they believed it would cure epilepsy.

[Eunuchist (imported)]

Browsed through other "remedies" on the site, very interesting. A true "killer" site for aspiring ideas about new & exciting medical experiments..

Anyway..

It seem however plausible that castration relieves certain tensions or repetiteveness of epileptic attacks. Observational evidence from the early 20th c. suggests that males with psychological disorders/irregularities benefited from castration, in a sense of being calmer with reduced instances of forsed thoughts and other auto-reactive nevrotic impulses, including sexual frustration. Studies show that castration activates the parasymphatetic nervous system (responsible for relaxation and calmness), while inhibiting the sympathetic (increased alertness, stress).

Castration in male dogs work exactly that way:

http://www.vetrica.com/care/dog/epilepsy.shtml

"Castration reduces the incidence of epilepsy, and so epileptic male dogs ought to be neutered. In some female dogs, seizures occur in clusters around the time of their "season" and so spaying is of value in this event. "

So I guess that supression of sympathetic system reduces the symptoms of epilepsy, as it get overstimulated during the attacks. So much for the ancient wisdom!

[Eunuchist (imported)]

I remember reading that decades ago, doctors would perform clitoridectomy (removal of the clitoris) on women because they believed it would cure epilepsy.

They believed that by inducing cliteroctomy it would stop masturbation; wich in turn was thought of provoking epilepsy.

[JesusA (imported)]

Castration was used in American mental institutions from the end of the 19th century until (in some places) the middle of the 20th. It was considered a "cure" for a variety of problems – epilepsy being but one of them. (The most recent case that I can find in California was as a cure for repeated arson!)

Since, in the Victorian Era, masturbation was considered a cause for a number of severe mental problems, castration might be prescribed for "excessive" masturbation, especially if the man or boy was institutionalized. Below is a repeat posting of one that I made nearly two years ago on the subject:

Dr. Everett Flood, in his article, Notes on the Castration of Idiot Children (American Journal of Psychology, vol. 10 (1899), pp. 296-301), describes the castration of twenty-six boys (half of them aged thirteen or younger and only two of them aged seventeen or older). All but two of the boys were institutionalized for epilepsy, though they were castrated in order to prevent their chronic masturbation. Flood notes that the procedure was totally successful in all but one of the cases – the one continued to masturbate occasionally. As a result of the successful therapeutic outcome of their castrations, six of the boys could even be released from the Michigan Home for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic into the care of their families.

Flood also noted that the castration seemed to improve the epilepsy of seventeen of the twenty-two boys, who had been institutionalized for it, sufficiently that they no longer needed as much medication. He reported, too, that in all instances temper was greatly improved, and there was less pugnacity, obstinacy, self-will, and more sympathy, altruism, and normal balance of emotion. He strongly recommended therapeutic castration in mental institutions.

We know of hundreds of castrations for various reasons in state-run institutions during the period. For example, Theophilus Painter first counted the number of human chromosomes in 1921 using thin slices from the testicles of three men who had been castrated in Texas state prisons for excessive masturbation. He got the number wrong, but, although the experiment was repeated by other scientists, his error was not corrected until 1955.