15 Medical Treatments From History That Sound Like Torture to Modern-Day Floridians

Medicine hasn’t always been white coats and prescription pads. For much of history, “treatment” meant pain, guesswork, and a whole lot of bad ideas.

From drilling skulls to pouring boiling oil into wounds, the cure often felt worse than the disease.

To modern-day Floridians, these so-called remedies look less like healthcare and more like medieval torture.

Ready to feel grateful for ibuprofen?

Bloodletting With Leeches

For centuries, doctors believed your blood needed “balancing.” Their go-to method? Leeches. Patients had wriggling parasites stuck to their skin to suck out the so-called “bad humors.”

The treatment wasn’t just gross, it often left people weaker, dizzy, and scarred. The promise of restored health rarely matched the painful reality.

Leeches didn’t work fast either. They clung for hours until they were full, then dropped off on their own.

That’s a long time to sit still while something chews on you.

Picture walking into urgent care with a sinus infection and getting a leech slapped on your face. Modern Americans would be out the door before the nurse finished explaining.

Trepanning: Drilling Holes in Your Skull

Some of the oldest surgeries ever involved literally drilling a hole into someone’s skull, supposedly to “release demons” or treat headaches.

No anesthetic. Just a chisel, a mallet, and a patient hoping they wouldn’t pass out.

This wasn’t just a rumor. Archaeologists have found skulls with cleanly cut holes, dating back as far as 6,000 B.C.

Incredibly, many show signs of bone healing, proof that people actually survived.

That survival doesn’t erase the horror. Infection, bleeding, and unimaginable pain were constant risks, though some early cultures viewed the practice as almost routine.

Modern studies confirm how widespread and surprisingly successful it can be.

Today, it’s called neurosurgery, done with anesthesia and sterile tools. Back then?

It was more like a nightmare carpentry project.

Mercury for Just About Everything

For centuries, mercury was promoted as a “miracle drug” for syphilis, with patients told to drink it, rub it on their skin, or inhale the vapor.

The problem was that mercury is poisonous.

Instead of healing, it caused tremors, kidney failure, ulcers in the mouth, and sometimes death. Many patients ended up worse than before.

Treatments often dragged on for years, giving rise to the saying “A night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury.”

Now picture walking into CVS and the pharmacist recommends a shot of liquid metal instead of penicillin.

Hard pass.

Lobotomies

In the mid-20th century, lobotomies were considered “cutting-edge treatment for mental illness,” where a surgeon would slide an ice-pick-like instrument through the eye socket to sever brain connections.

The result often left patients docile but stripped of personality and function.

Some could no longer recognize loved ones. Others lost their ability to think clearly or control themselves.

Imagine being told you just need a minor procedure for anxiety, only to wake up unable to recognize your own family.

What was once seen as progress is now remembered as one of medicine’s darkest missteps.

Tooth Pulling for Headaches

In the 1800s, some dentists and doctors believed that migraines or facial pain came from “bad roots,” so they treated headaches by pulling healthy teeth.

The theory was that removing the source of the pain in the mouth would cure the pain in the head.

Spoiler: it didn’t. Patients often ended up toothless, still in agony, and sometimes worse off from the trauma of extraction.

Historical reports even describe severe headaches triggered after extractions, proving the “cure” could actually make things worse.

Imagine walking into your dentist for a headache and leaving with a jack-o’-lantern smile, and the same migraine pounding away.

Boiling Oil for Wounds

During the Renaissance, surgeons treated gunshot injuries by pouring boiling oil into wounds, believing it would cleanse away poison.

Patients screamed in agony, and many slipped into shock. The treatment often caused burns, swelling, and infection on top of the original injury.

In 1537, surgeon Ambroise Paré famously ran out of oil and used a mild ointment instead. His patients recovered better than those burned by oil.

Thankfully, the practice faded.

Today, Neosporin and a Band-Aid feel like a five-star spa treatment in comparison.

Cupping With Fire

Traditional cupping once meant heating glass cups with fire and pressing them onto the skin.

The suction sometimes left burns and deep bruises instead of relief.

It was supposed to draw out “bad blood,” but in reality, patients often looked like they’d lost a fight with a branding iron. Infections and scarring weren’t unusual.

Today, Olympic athletes sport harmless purple circles that fade quickly.

Back then, fire cupping wasn’t wellness. It was medieval misery.

Amputation Without Anesthesia

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, if you had a crushed bone or severe infection, the fix was to cut the limb off without an anesthetic.

Surgeons used saws, no numbing, and sometimes a shot of whiskey to steady the patient.

Speed was everything, since surgery before anesthesia meant shock and blood loss could kill within minutes.

Many didn’t survive the ordeal, and those who did often faced infection or lifelong disability.

Today, we grumble about waiting for Novocain at the dentist. Back then, you got nothing before losing a limb.

Arsenic Medicine

For centuries, doctors prescribed arsenic tonics for everything from fever to cancer, believing the toxic mineral could “stimulate” the body.

In truth, it was slow poisoning. Patients developed nausea, hair loss, organ damage, and often an early death.

Arsenic became so common that it was dubbed the “Poison of Kings” and the “Saviour of Syphilis”, a grim reminder of its dual role as both remedy and killer.

Now imagine a Walgreens pharmacist handing you a prescription labeled Arsenic Tablets.

That’s a hard no.

Blistering Treatments

Doctors once used burns and blistering with hot irons or caustic pastes as “counter-irritants” to draw out illness.

Patients endured it for pneumonia or arthritis, but instead of healing, they got raw skin, pain, and infection.

These methods were part of “heroic medicine,” where harsher was believed to be better.

Today, we reach for ibuprofen.

Back then, you got branded like cattle.

Fainting Couch Therapy

In Victorian times, women diagnosed with “hysteria” were often told to rest on fainting couches, undergo “electric shock” treatment, or even have ovaries removed, all in the name of medicine.

Doctors didn’t understand women’s health, so any vague symptom, anxiety, fainting, or sleeplessness could be labeled “hysteria.”

Instead of getting real help, many women were subjected to treatments that sounded more like punishment than medical care.

It’s the difference between modern therapy or medication, and a couch + stigma + possibly surgery.

Hot Iron for Hemorrhoids

In the Middle Ages, the “cure” for hemorrhoids was cauterizing them with a red-hot iron rod.

The result was excruciating pain, bleeding, and an increased infection risk, with no guarantee of lasting relief.

This kind of cauterization goes back to Hippocrates and Unani medical texts, where burning was seen as a way to purge illness.

Today, Americans use Preparation H.

Back then, you clenched your teeth and prayed.

Tongue Cutting for Speech Problems

In the 19th century, some surgeons believed stuttering could be cured by cutting through the root of the tongue to stop spasms.

The results were rarely good. Many patients suffered permanent damage, infection, or worse speech outcomes.

Modern speech therapy feels like a gift from heaven compared to that.

Imagine being told a “quick surgery” would fix your stutter, then waking up with your tongue sliced and nothing improved.

Whipping for Paralysis

In medieval Europe, doctors believed paralysis could be treated by whipping or flagellation to “stimulate” the nerves.

Patients were beaten with rods or nettles in hopes of restoring movement.

The result was more pain, injury, and humiliation, without real improvement.

Imagine physical therapy being replaced with flogging. Not exactly a Blue Cross-covered benefit.

Electric Shock Chairs

In the 19th century, doctors experimented with strapping patients into chairs and shocking them for everything from depression to impotence.

It was promoted as “electrotherapy” and sold as scientific progress.

Patients endured painful jolts, convulsions, and confusion, usually without real improvement.

To modern Americans, it looks less like medicine and more like a carnival torture ride.