Electroconvulsive Treatment: A Case Study

What remains unknown is why electroconvulsive therapy is effective. A plethora of studies show the neurochemical correlates of this treatment and its relation to the anti-depressant effect, yet none are conclusive. Richard Abrams has studied ECT for years and discusses a wide variety of reasons for its effectiveness in his revised edition of Electroconvulsive Therapy. For a person who has studied this treatment for 50 years, he concludes

Another biological therapy is electroconvulsive therapy, which patients are injected so that they are unconscious before the electric shock is administered. (They are also given a nerve blocking agent to paralyse muscles to prevent fractures during the seizure.) A small amount of electric current, lasting about half a second is passed through the brain. This produces a seizure, lasting up to one minute, which affects the whole brain. A patient usually requires between 3 and 15 treatments.

Electroconvulsive therapy, also known as ECT, is a medical procedure that is used in the treatment of mental illness. In ECT, a small electrical impulse is sent through the brain, resulting in an ephemeral seizure. Though the process is generally effective, modern science is unaware of the explanation behind ECT's success. Its history is filled with a large amount of stigma and the use of ECT as a therapy is still debated today. ECT has evolved to a point where its beneficial effects can be maximized and its adverse effects can be minimized through proper administration.

Cortical stimulation therapy. This stimulates your brain with electrical currents to make it work better.

Prior to the actual treatment, the patient is given general anesthesia and a muscle relaxant. Electrodes are then attached to the patient's scalp and an electric current is applied which causes a brief convulsion. Minutes later, the patient awakens confused and without memory of events surrounding the treatment. This treatment is usually repeated three times a week for two to four weeks. The number of treatments varies from six to twelve. It is often recommended that the patient maintain a limited intake of medication, after the ECT treatments, to reduce the chance of relapse.

In this article published in Journal of Mental Health, Lauren Rayner, with the help of her colleagues study the consent process of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and the side effects that come with the therapy. Electroconvulsive therapy is used to help people with certain mental illnesses such as severe depression, mania, catatonia, and schizophrenia. This therapy is the process of which electric currents pass through the brain intentionally causing a quick seizure. This seizure causes changes to happen within the brain that can quickly reverse symptoms of some mental disorders. Electroconvulsive therapy has a very bad connotation behind it. It is portrayed in the media as inhumane and leaves a negative impression. Patients post electroconvulsive therapy complain about cognitive impairment. According to the article a patient-centered approach will help inform others about the treatment and policy procedures of electroconvulsive therapy. Researchers conducted studies that helped understand the perspectives of patients that receive the therapy.

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,

On the other hand, majority of the side effects linked to ECT are usually minor and can be managed by careful screening of patients, close monitoring during ECT and regular administration of medications. ECT is beneficial as it quickly relieves symptoms of major depression such as depressed mood, lack of interest, appetite and weight, sleep disturbances, feelings of hopelessness, loss of self-esteem, and thoughts of suicide. Similarly, the remission of ECT is reported to range from 20-80 per cent. Extensive research has also suggested that ECT does not cause permanent brain damage as once thought and the risk of mortality is 1 in 10,000. Additionally, ECT is only administered after

Growing up in the late 50's and early 60's the term for mental illness was they are "nuts" or "crazy." Watching black and white TV depicted a crazy person in a straight jacket, in a locked white padded room, screaming. As a child seeing this would impart a stigma of fear and threat to self. So, how does a senior feel about mental illness if raised in this era without being educated and living in a rural area? Luckily my mother explained at a young age that these individuals are ok and just have a medical condition and to treat them like anyone else.

The precursors for this therapy type were introduced long before electroconvulsive therapy even entered into the picture. In the early 16th century using medical drugs to induce seizures was thought to be appropriate to treat therapeutic conditions. This was followed with an article in the London Medical Journal in 1785 stating that inducing seizures could be used for therapeutic use. Convulsive therapy would then reappear in 1934 when a neurologist by the name of the Ladislas J. Meduna first began to induce seizures in patients first by using the drug camphor and the following up with the drug metrazol. In 1937 the first international meeting on convulsive therapy was held in Switzerland and 3 years after that cardiazal convulsive therapy would be used worldwide. In 1937 an Italian professor of neuropsychiatry be the name of Ugo Cerletti with his colleague Lucio Bini would be the first people to replace metrazol with electricity in the convulsive therapy. The reasons that he choose to replace metrazol with electricity in the therapy was based on previous experiments he had conducted on inducing seizures in animals using electroshock. Previous experiments that he had done with animals included noticing that in dogs giving them an electric shock to the head would result in convulsions. Another

Electroconvulsive therapy (also called ECT) is a form of therapy invented in the 1930’s which uses electrodes to shock and trigger a seizure in a patient to help with rebalancing the chemicals in the brain's system. The patient is first placed under a general anesthesia and given muscle relaxants so that they are asleep during the procedure and it won’t cause them pain. Two electrodes attached to the patient's scalp and which when stimulated will create a seizure. The seizure is brief and only lasts for about a minute and the patient is carefully monitored to ensure that everything is going as it is supposed to. Afterwards, they are monitored for any side effects or unusual behavior caused from the treatment.

To be completely honest, I’ve been putting this essay off because I just didn’t know what to write about. Obviously, I have interests and passions, but which ones mean the most to me? Which ones stand out in my mind? Unusually, my answer came while writing a research paper on electroconvulsive therapy. Sounds odd right? When I was asked to write a simple research paper on electroconvulsive therapy for my English class I thought it would be a piece of cake. The paper was to include information about the history, uses, and how it worked. Yet, instead of following these guidelines I found myself writing more about the mentally ill individuals it was being used on. I was writing more about their struggles and the challenges of being mentally

In 1938 two Italians neuropsychiatric introduced a new form of treatment involving the use of electroshock to patients diagnosed with different types of metal disorders covering major depressive disorders, catatonia, mania and schizophrenia, gaining popularity in the 1940 and 50’s as an option treatment for mental disorders (Shorter, 2007). The treatment consist of a series of electric shocks directly aimed at the brain for the sole intention of triggering brief sessions of seizures, changing the chemistry inside the brain and hopefully reversing the symptoms of certain mental disorders (MayoClinic, 1). The treatment is used as the last result when other forms of treatments do not help in treating mental illness, and involves the use of high electric shocks under general anesthesia 2 to 3 times a week for 3 weeks, and with maintenance once a week for up to a year in order to reduce relapses (MayoClinic, 13).

I came to the field of psychiatry circuitously. Being second birth of premature twins, having had frequent physician visits for infections; I believed physician is a magician who cures us with colored magic pills. As I grew up, I always chose medicine and my twin brother chose computer. It started as a play and then converted to a full-blown passion, as I was naturally inclined to biology more and would study hard and impress him with my knowledge. At an early age, frequent visits of psychiatrists for my grandmother’s dementia and depression made me believe that any amount of human emotional problems can be addressed by physicians.

The ECT was being administered in theatre in the general hospital. In advance of the treatment the clients vital signs were checked and it was confirmed that consent was given. The client was then transferred to theatre. Present in the room was the anaesthesiology team, ECT nurse, surgical nurse, psychiatric consultant, registrar, psychiatric nurse and student nurse. Initially the client was hooked up to a machine to record her vital signs, anaesthetic and muscle relaxants were administered and the client was ventilated with 100% oxygen. Under anaesthetic the client has reduced capacity to breathe hence oxygen is administered, pure oxygen also reduces the deleterious effects on memory. Anaesthesia and muscle relaxants reduce the seizure threshold and the risk of injuries from motor activity during the seizure (Fink 2009). The client remained in the supine position, conductive jelly was applied bilaterally to the temples and the psychiatrist administered the electrical stimulus. The choice between unilateral and bilateral electrode placement remains