Historical Development of Psychiatry in the Philippines

Pre-spanish regime

• Filipinos believed in a world that was equally material and spiritual.

• Thus, the concept of illness during this period was based on the belief in such materials and spiritual.

• Treatment: authentic rituals and ceremonies

• Babaylan (shaman) and sorcerer healing

Spanish rule

• Filipinos accepted that mental illness was caused by an act of sorcery.

• Mangkukulam (witches) and the manggagaway (devil men)

• Treatment: herbolarios (herbmen)

Early 19th Century

• Hospicio de San Jose – organized care and treatment for individuals with mental illness

• Doctors and nuns

• Was made possible when the Spanish naval authorities requested for a place of confinement for their mentally ill sailors

American era

• Two American physicians who provided treatment for mentally ill patients of the Civil Hospital located in Calle Iris

• 1904- Insane Department was opened at San Lazaro Hospital

• Dr. Elias Domingo – headed the unit

• 1918 – City Sanitarium was constructed for patients residing in Manila

Japanese Occupation

• World War II

• National Psychopath Hospital- continued to operate

• Japanese Imperial Army – donated an electroshock apparatus to the hospital

Liberation Period and the era of the republic

• End of World War II and Japanese Rule

• Americans helped in immediate needs for the rehabilitation of patients and the expansion of psychiatric facilities and training of hospital personnel.

• National Psychopathic Hospital was renamed National Mental Hospital

• Dr. Jose A. Fernandez - head

1946

• V. Luna General Hospital established a neuropsychiatric service.

• Treatment: ECT, insulin therapy and narcoanalysis

1947

• hypnosis and group therapy

• prefrontal lobotomy (the destruction of the white matter of the frontal lobe of the brain)

• University of Santo Tomas opened its Neuro-Psychiatry Section with Dr. Leopoldo Pardo as its chief

1949

• transorbital lobotomy

• Philippine Mental Health Association (PMHA) was founded by Dr. Eduardo Krapf, Toribio Joson and Manuel Arguelles.

1956

University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center (UERMMMC) established a department of psychiatry headed by Dr. Jaime Zaguirre.

1958

• Philippine General Hospital of the University of the Philippines opened its own neuropsychiatry section headed by Dr. Baltazar Reyes, Jr.

NCMH

• 4200 bed capacity

• 3400 in patient’s daily average