# data[].attributes.body
McLean releases the first clinical report on the use for beta-blockers to treat restlessness (akathisia), a major side-effect of antipsychotic agents.

# data[].attributes.body
McLean becomes the first center for electron microscopy in a US psychiatric institution, providing the ability to view the structure of individual nerve cells in the brain.

# data[].attributes.body
Brain proteolipids are discovered at McLean. They are a new class of molecules necessary for brain structure and function, and their discovery provides a basis for understanding normal brain development and abnormalities underlying psychiatric illness.

# data[].attributes.body
First mental hospital posted in New England

# data[].attributes.body
McLean admitted more than 9,000 children and adults to inpatient and residential care. In addition, the hospital provided 58,000 day treatment and outpatient visits. Seven satellite programs across the state extend McLean’s presence and support through our communities

# data[].attributes.body
The new McLean Hospital in Belmont opened on October 1, exactly 77 years from the date of the original Asylum opened.

# data[].attributes.body
The McLean Asylum was renamed the McLean Hospital. It started to be rebuilt at the Belmont site.

# data[].attributes.body
McLean was the first psychiatric hospital in the US that established basic and clinical laboratories to study the role of biological factors in mental illness.

# data[].attributes.body
The Trustees purchased 107 acres in Belmont. Working with Edward Cowles, MD, McLean Superintendent, they rejected an institutional design. Instead they planned a series of “cottages” that resembled private residences surrounding a large administration building.

# data[].attributes.body
Trustees for the Asylum commissioned Frederick Law Olmsted, the now famous landscape architect, and Joseph Curtis, a local civil engineer, to choose a new location for the hospital. The Charlestown setting of the McLean Asylum had been compromised by development and railroads.

# data[].attributes.body
Luther V. Bell, MD, McLean superintendent, and 12 other asylum superintendents from the eastern US, founded the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane—now known as the American Psychiatric Association.

# data[].attributes.body
The Asylum was renamed in honor of John McLean, a Boston merchant who in 1823 bequeathed the hospital $25,000, payable on his widow’s passing. After he died in 1834 the hospital received a gift totaling nearly $120,000, owing to a residual legacy of more than $90,000.

# data[].attributes.body
The Asylum opened, a division of Massachusetts General Hospital. It was the first hospital in New England and the fourth in the US designed for treating people with mental illness. In its first three months McLean admitted 13 patients.

# data[].attributes.body
The hospital was founded through a charter granted by the Massachusetts legislature. Many private donors earmarked their contributions for treating mental illness.