For decades, psychiatrists deliberately pushed patients into life-threatening comas as a medical treatment.Known as Insulin Shock Therapy, this procedure was once considered a scientific breakthrough. Practiced in leading hospitals and taught at elite universities, it was believed that inducing seizures and near-death states could “reset” the diseased mind.In this episode of The Caduceus Files, we examine:how insulin shock therapy beganwhy it made sense to respected physiciansthe human cost paid by patients and familiesand how the practice ultimately collapsed under evidenceThis is not a story of cruelty or ignorance.It is a case study in how confidence, authority, and desperation can sustain dangerous medicine in the absence of proof.Memento Medicus.

For most of medical history, madness wasn’t considered psychological.Doctors believed it was physical — caused by pressure, congestion, and excess force inside the skull. Hallucinations, seizures, agitation, and mania were interpreted as signs that something inside the head was building up and needed release.This belief shaped centuries of medical practice, from trepanation and bloodletting to institutional psychiatric treatments.

For over 2,000 years, bloodletting was considered the gold standard of medical care.Doctors across Europe and America believed disease was caused by imbalance—and the cure was simple: drain the excess blood.From ancient Greece to George Washington’s deathbed, this practice shaped medicine, education, and authority itself.This episode of The Caduceus Files examines why bloodletting made sense to intelligent physicians, why it survived for centuries, and how logic without evidence became lethal.This is not a story of ignorance.It’s a story of confidence, urgency, and the danger of action without proof.

Thousands of years before modern neurosurgery, physicians across the world deliberately opened the human skull as treatment.This practice, known as trepanation, appears independently across ancient cultures — from South America to Europe to Africa — and many patients survived. Archaeological evidence shows healed bone, clean cuts, and repeated procedures.This was not ritual madness.It was early medical logic.In this episode of The Caduceus Files, we examine:why ancient doctors believed pressure caused illnesshow trepanation sometimes saved liveswhy survival reinforced beliefand what this practice reveals about medicine before measurementThis is not a story about ignorance.It’s a case study in how observation can sustain dangerous certainty.Memento Medicus.

For centuries, medicine didn’t reject cannibalism. It prescribed it.In this episode of The Caduceus Files, we examine the forgotten medical practice known as corpse medicine — a system in which human remains were legally harvested, processed, sold, and consumed as cures.From powdered Egyptian mummies sold in European apothecaries to skull-based remedies prescribed by royalty, this wasn’t fringe superstition. It was mainstream medicine, taught by universities and endorsed by doctors who believed human flesh carried healing power.

These are not stories of ignorance or madness — they are case studies in how intelligent systems fail when belief outruns evidence.Memento Medicus.