Drugs for mental illnesses in ancient greek medicine.
Psychiatrike = Psychiatriki January 1, 2019 K Laios, P Lytsikas-Sarlis, K Manes et al.
Drug use in ancient times falls into two categories: therapeutic prescriptions by physicians and recreational or ritualistic abuse. Ancient Greek medical texts describe plants such as black and white hellebore, mandrake, henbane, opium poppy, and frankincense used to treat psychiatric and somatic disorders. Drugs were prepared by drying, grinding, squeezing, or boiling plant roots into juices, oils, or extracts, sometimes mixed with wine. Physicians like Hippocrates and Galen used these substances for their analgesic, hypnotic, and anticonvulsant properties, including as anesthetics for surgery. Outside medicine, psychotropic and hallucinatory effects were central to mythology and public rituals, leading to the concept of magic potions referenced by Theophrastus.