Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
insulin shock therapy

insulin shock therapy

9.8
A past treatment for mental illness that used large insulin doses to cause fits and coma
  • noun
  • /ˈɪnsəˌlɪn ʃɑk ˈθɛrəpi/
  • Archaic
translation icon : terapia de shock insulínico
  • Many healthcare professionals have criticized insulin shock therapy due to its harsh methods of inducing convulsions for psychiatric treatment.

Examples

  • Before its ban, patients experienced extreme side effects during insulin shock therapy, which aimed to treat severe mental illnesses.

  • Psychiatry has a long, bloody, and inglorious history involving forced medication and confinement, as well as electroshock and insulin shock therapies, and "insane" psycho-surgeries, as well as a thousand other tortures.

    Blog text (25)

  • The treatment involving insulin shock therapy was controversial because it induced a coma in patients to manage their symptoms.

Synonyms

shock therapy
vsinsulin shock therapy
  • Specialized
8 5.1

A treatment that uses electric shocks to treat severe mental illness

chooses hormone overdose to cause convulsions instead of electrical or chemical means
shock treatment
vsinsulin shock therapy
  • Specialized
4 5.8

A medical procedure that uses electric shocks to the brain to help severe mental illness

uses large hormone doses to induce convulsions rather than electric currents
insulin shock
vsinsulin shock therapy
  • Specialized
1 7.2

A severe effect or treatment using too much insulin that causes uncontrolled shaking and coma

refers to the planned medical procedure using large hormone doses
insulin shock treatment
vsinsulin shock therapy
  • Archaic
7.1

A medical treatment that uses large doses of insulin to cause seizures and coma, formerly used for serious mental illness

is the same idea but uses a different common label
Metrazol shock treatment
vsinsulin shock therapy
  • Archaic
9.9

A medical treatment from the past that gave injections to cause strong seizures to treat mental illness

relies on hormone dosing rather than that stimulant drug
metrazol shock
vsinsulin shock therapy
  • Archaic
9.9

A medical treatment that uses a drug to cause seizures and coma

uses hormone injections specifically instead of that chemical agent
Metrazol shock therapy
vsinsulin shock therapy
  • Archaic
9.9

A medical treatment using Metrazol to cause seizures and coma

focuses on hormone-induced convulsions rather than general drug methods

How Extreme

insulin shock therapy
  • Archaic
9.8
electroconvulsive therapy
  • Specialized
1 6.5
pharmacotherapy
  • Specialized
1 6.2
psychotherapy
  • Specialized
24 5.8

Surface Forms

insulin shock therapy singular
insulin shock therapies plural

Morphology

insulin + shock + therapy

The compound is compositionally built from 'insulin' (a hormone) and 'therapy' (treatment), and the insertion of 'shock' signals a severe physiological state, so learners can infer it is a medical treatment involving insulin that produces a harmful/altered bodily state. However, the precise historical meaning — deliberate induction of convulsions/coma as a psychiatric procedure — and the specialized medical sense of 'shock' are unlikely to be known to a B1 learner, so the overall meaning is only partially predictable.

Etymology

The term insulin shock therapy comes from doctors giving large doses of insulin to make a patient fall into a sudden 'shock' or 'coma', often with shaking and loss of awareness. So the name refers to that specific medical treatment where insulin was used to force this collapse.