Electric Rays On The Cranial Surface

Still today it is not known why ECT works but it seems to cause changes in brain chemistry that can quickly reverse symptoms of certain mental illnesses. It is also said that the shock literally shocks the person out of their illness as it is regarded as a punishment for the inappropriate behaviour. Another explanation is that the associated memory loss following shock allows the person to start afresh. They literally ‘forget’ they were suffering from a mental illness. Created in +1934 by Hungarian neuropsychiatrist Ladislas Meduna, [11]. However, ECT was not introduced in England until 1939 when Lothar Kalinowsky, observed the treatment administered in Italy and decided to use it in England due to its promising results. During this time high doses of electricity were administered without anaesthesia and muscle relaxations. This lead to memory loss, fractured bones and other serious side effects, which lead to, much of the stigma attached to ECT, because of these early treatments [12]. ECT is a treatment that is still used today, however much less brutally than in the 1930s.

The history of electroshock therapy (ECT), Ugo Cerletti, in 1938 came up with the idea for treat human beings with electroshock therapy. He was observing the barbaric act of slaughterhouse pigs being electrocuted into unconsciousness to make it less difficult for working to slit their throats and thought that is could be applied to the treatment of mental illnesses in human beings. A year later the idea was introduce to the United States by the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Patients of all ages received the electroshock treatment for “disorder” ranging from depression, mania, schizophrenia and homosexuality and truancy. Electroshock treatments disappeared in the late 1960s. Psychotropic medications for antidepressant slowed down the use of electroshock therapy. The patient received shock treatment over

Prior to this assignment, my feelings from electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) solely came from images in the media. Two instances that stand out to me is the portrayal of ECT in an episode of "American Horror Story: Asylum" and from the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Although I realize media is not an accurate representation of reality, these scenes stood out to me due to the intense, emotional display of ECT's effects through the patient's eyes. Despite the unrealistic depiction of ECT, one accurate aspect of the scenes is that ECT was commonly used during the 1960s-1970s to improve mental disturbances and a variety of psychological disorders. I think the reason these scenes stood out to me was that ECT was implemented without the patient's informed consent or agreement upon the treatment regimen, utilized as a way to subdue patients into compliance. Contrary to modern use of ECT, this type of therapy was used as a form of punishment, implemented

When staff did attempt to cure the patients, they followed the practices typical of the time period—purging and bloodletting, the most common. Other treatments included dousing the patient in either hot or ice-cold water to shock their minds back into a normal state. The belief that patients needed to choose rationality over insanity led to techniques aiming to intimidate (Butcher 37). Blistering, physical restraints, threats, and straitjackets were employed to achieve this end. Powerful drugs were also administered, for example, to a hysterical patient in order to exhaust them (Butcher 37, Alexander 109). Around the mid-1700s, the Dutch Dr. Boerhaave invented the “gyrating chair” that became a popular tool in Europe and the United States. This instrument was intended to shake up the blood and tissues of the body to restore equilibrium, but instead resulted in rendering the patient unconscious without any recorded successes (Alexander 109).

This surgery was founded by Portuguese doctor Egas Moniz. He learned of two Chimpanzees who had their frontal lobes removed in order to change their emotions and actions. So he came up with the idea that this must be tried on humans with mental disorders to see if it can cure them. A separation tool was made and Dr. Moniz began doing frontal lobotomies at the “Libson Insane Asylum” (Harriet Hall 2015.) Dr. Moniz began to notice that his patients began to act “more docile and seemingly content” (Harriet Hall 2015.) These actions were complete opposites from their original actions of rage and violence. So without any further studies Dr. Moniz would publisher his work winning him a Nobel Prize in medicine and he became critically acclaimed with this work. At the time the Nobel Prize committee claimed it to be “the most important discovery ever made” pertaining to psychiatric therapy (Harriet Hall 2015.) due to its limited time of research the horrible side effects were never addressed till after the multiple procedures were done. The case of Bennie Sternberg being a prime example. Bennie suffered from schizophrenia and would sometimes act out in fits of anger. The Sternberg family was more or less pressured into having Bennie go through the surgery. Post-surgery Bennie was not the same. His family would account that Bennie “did not speak a word” he would “barely move” (Harriet Hall 2015.) He

and James Olds, neuroscientists. They placed a small electrode in the brains of rats at the

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a treatment for severe mental illness in which the brain is stimulated with a strong electrical current which induces a seizure. The seizure rearranges the brain's neurochemistry and results in an elevation of mood. This essay asks: Is ECT any safer and more effective in treating mood disorders than drug therapies? This treatment has a controversial history ever since it was first introduced in 1938. I intend to argue that electroconvulsive therapy is indeed a safe treatment of mental disorders when other treatments have failed. Due to the development of safer and less traumatic ways of administering ECT,

Since electroconvulsive therapy is not as common as it used to be, many studies are from the late 1900s, early 2000s. Abraham and Kulhara (1987) looked at the effectiveness of electroconvulsive therapy and stimulated electroconvulsive therapy in patients with schizophrenia who were a part of an out-patient department. This was a double-blind study and in order for patients to be a part of this study, they had to meet the diagnosis for schizophrenia,

Silas Weir Mitchell, an American neurologist, developed rest cure in the late 1800’s for the treatment of hysteria, neurasthenia, and other nervous illnesses that women and some men were going through. Rest cure treatment usually lasted for about six to eight weeks depending on the patient and their progress throughout their treatment. The rest cure patients were completely isolated from family and friends. In some cases patients were not allowed to sew, read, write, or even talking. To help the patient maintain blood flow with very little movement, the doctor would either massage them or use electrotherapy on them. Electrotherapy is the use of electricity currents that pass through the body to stimulate one’s nerves and muscles.(author’s

Going way back in time to the ancient times, Greek scientists and physicians used animals to satisfy their curiosity of the human body. They examined different areas of the body ranging from nerves to muscles in an attempt to better comprehend what was going on functionally. One Greek physician by the name

The groundwork for the development of electroshock therapy was laid in 1935, when a Budapest psychiatrist, Von Meduna, observed that

In the 1920's, it was discovered that by placing electrodes on the skin in the region of the eyes, one could record electrical activity which changed in synchrony with movements of the eye in the head. It was initially believed that these potentials reflected the action potentials in the muscles that are responsible for moving the eyes in the orbit.

The history of surgery -as well as surgeons- can be traced back to 3000 BC and has continued since then through the Neolithic Age, Middle Ages and the Renaissance up until now. The oldest performance of surgery which can be traced, is called Trephination, and is when a hole is scraped or drilled into the human skull, removing a piece of bone that reveals blood vessels and the dura mater -which is the thick outermost membrane surrounding the spinal cord and the brain. This surgical intervention is done to treat problems that were associated with intracranial diseases, mental disorders, epileptic seizures and migraines. This act was a worldwide practice that was done throughout Africa, South America and Asia, etc. In Egypt, trephination was used to treat neurological diseases and pain caused from skull trauma, but history has proven that some of these skulls that were discovered showed signs of these diseases where the hole was positioned. Despite trephination being used for medical reasons, some researchers believe that it was also used for another purpose: ritual or religious beliefs.

Electroconvulsive therapy is a form of treatment where small electric currents travel through the brain to intentionally induce seizures (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2017). This treatment is mostly used when illnesses have not been improved by other types of treatments like medication and other forms of therapy. For example, illnesses like severe depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, and sometimes post-traumatic stress disorder as well (National Institute of Mental Health, 2016). Since the procedure includes having electrode pads placed on the head to deliver levels of electric currents, it is essentially considered a “last resort” treatment because of its inhumanity. Electroconvulsive

The two psychological interventions that were administered to McMurphy while in the mental institution were a lobotomy and shock therapy. A lobotomy is the removal of the portion from the frontal lobe of the brain. This procedure’s main goal is to eliminate aggressive or violent behavior. This invention took place in 1935 by Dr. Antonio Egas Moniz. However, by the late 1940s the realization those individuals undergoing lobotomy procedures took place without initiative became apparent. Although the methods of a lobotomy have changed the basic underlying idea of neurosurgery exists today in the form of “psychosurgery” (Encarta 2000). Shock Therapy uses electric current or drugs to control psychotic disorders. In 1933, Dr. Manfred Sakel used drugs and instituted insulin shock to control mainly Schizophrenia. In 1938, Drs. U. Cerletti and L. Bini used electroshock therapy to treat severe depression (i.e. manic depressive psychoses). Alternating current through the brain using parallel