Quelled

Medical use

Emerging from the new wave of medical advances that became necessary to treat survivors of the mage war, quelling is at the extreme end of the toolkit available to trained psychologists, and is used when traditional talking- and hypnos-therapy is insufficient. Under strict medical supervision, quelling enables patients to work through post-traumatic responses by 'quelling' or supressing a particular emotion, enabling the patient to address the causes of the trauma.
The process of quelling a patient involves injecting a serum that targets brain functions associated with anxiety and stress, although treatments for excessive anger and various froms of substance abuse have been proposed.

Illegitimate uses

As the base of the quelling serum allows it to be used in a variety of medical treatments, so unadulterated serum can be turned to a variety of pruposes. In low doses, serum (under the street name 'pace') has been used to create everything from appetite suppressants to knockout drugs. In high concentrations, it puts a person into such a strongly quelled state that they lose all emotions and become extremely unpredicatble.

Causes

A chemical serum administered intravenously.

Symptoms

Immediately after administration, symptoms of anxiety and stress begin to decrease, and patients cease self-soothing behaviour. Patients remain conscious and responsive throughout the process.

Treatment

The body metabolises the serum into water and inert agents wich are later excreted through normal means.
Quelling is not suitable for patients with kidney or liver dysfunction.

Prognosis

Under controlled conditions, quelling presents no adverse effects.
'Cyclical quelling' has been observed in patients who self-medicate without correct guidance. As the affected emotion is diminished, the patient's senstivity is heightened, rapidly leading to normal levels of response being seen as extreme and in need of treatment. Left unchecked, cyclical quelling can eradicate the ability to feel the targeted emotion and subsequent doses of serum begin to attack the structure of the brain itself, causing memory loss, personality deregulation, and coma. In patients illicitly using serum to regulate appetite or excessive alcohol consumption, a complete loss of appetite and total hydrophobia will often cause death through starvation or dehydration before treament can be sought.

Sequela

Recently-quelled patients must be observed through the recovery period for any adverse physical or psychological effects. If the patient received an insufficient does of serum, some trauma responses may reemerge and sedation or further (non-quellng) treatment may be necessary to settle them. If the parient received an excessive dose, remnants in their system will leave the patient with feelings of disassociation and 'emotional numbness' which may cause distress.
Prolonged treatment can permanently affect the patient's ability to process emotion, and quelling is recommended for short-term treatment of extreme trauma only.

Type

Chemical Compound

Origin

Engineered

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Rare