Medical spankings in Siberia

Medical spankings in Siberia
Siberian scientists have made a discovery in curing drink and drug addicts, workaholics, obsessed with sex – by using corporal punishment. Dr German Pilipenko and Professor Marina Chukhrova have treated more than a thousand patients, and are now getting foreigners trying this ‘method of limited exposure or pain’, often as a last resort. 22-year-old Natasha says ‘I am the proof that this controversial treatment works, and I recommend it to anyone suffering from an addiction or depression. It hurts like crazy – but it’s given me back my life. Without it I seriously believe I would now be dead’. Patients see that this treatment is working where everything else has failed.

Like other patients, Natasha is given psychological counseling before each session of 60 lashes (those with alcohol or other addictions face 30) – and also undergoes an electrocardiogram to ensure the shock therapy is not causing unexpected heart problems. Dr Pilipenko has had success with showbiz clients and believes he could help people like British singer Pete Doherty who has repeatedly failed to respond to other treatments. Whether drink or drug addicts, or people who are miserable and depressed, these Russian medics say they have restored that simple ingredient missing from so many lives – happiness.

The cure involves literally beating the addiction, obsession or depression out of the patient. Dr Pilipenko claims he is restoring or modernizing a method of treatment known to previous generations including notorious cane-happy English schoolmasters and monks in medieval holy orders.

‘We cane the patients on the buttocks with a clear and definite medical purpose – it is not some warped sado-masochistic activity,’ says Professor Chukhrova, a psychiatrist with more than 25 years experience treating drug addicts and alcoholics. In simple terms, addicts suffer from a lack of endorphin often known as ‘happiness hormones’, she says, adding that the acute pain of corporal punishment stimulates the brain to release endorphin into the body ‘making patients feel happier in their own skins’

‘The caning counteracts a lack of enthusiasm for life which is often behind addictions, suicidal tendencies and psychosomatic disorders’, claims Dr Pilipenko. Both personally administer the ‘medical spankings’. Patients pay 3,000 rubles ($99) for a session of counseling and beating. They are expected to undergo two beating sessions a week for three months – with follow-up visits every four weeks for the next year. The ages of the patients – men and women – range from 17 to 70.

Medical spankings in Siberia

The treatment was pioneered in Siberia by Dr Sergei Speransky, director of Biological Studies at Novosibirsk Institute of Medicine, who himself admitted to undergoing flogging treatment as an antidote to his bouts of depression.

siberiantimes.com