Narrative Essay On Electroconvulsive Therapy

of the therapy, the client meets the therapist to describe specific problems and to set goals they

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

The dynamics of the client-therapist relationship in cognitive therapy is a collaborative effort. Cognitive therapists elicit patient’s goals at the beginning of treatment. They explain their treatment plan and interventions to help patients understand how they will be able to reach their goals and feel better. At every session, they elicit and help patients solve problems that are of greatest distress. They do so through a structure that seeks to maximize efficiency, learning, and therapeutic change (Robert & Watkins, 2009). Important parts of each session include checking the client’s mood, a connection between sessions, setting an agenda, discussing specific problems and teaching skills in the context of solving these problems, setting of self-help assignments, summary, and feedback (Robert & Watkins, 2009). The status that CBT has with insurers and funding agencies is a result of concrete and measurable goals, goal-focused processes and clear outcomes-based evaluations/results. Therapy is typically conducted in an outpatient setting by trained therapist in cognitive behavioral techniques. Treatment is relatively short in comparison to some other forms of psychotherapy, usually lasting no longer than 16 weeks.

When ECT “hit” the medical scene in the 40s and 50s, it was unsafe and gruesome (Dahl, 2008). Treatment was often performed while the patient was awake, and their convulsions were not controlled at all – they were often strong enough to break bones. ECT hit its peak in the 1960s when three tenths of a million US citizens underwent the therapy yearly (Dahl, 2008). At that point, however, it was still “absolutely a cruel procedure” (Dahl, 2008). It is still yet to recover from its ghastly past, the general public still thinks of ECT as how it was portrayed in One Flew Over the Coocoo's Nest, and more recently, Requiem for a Dream (Fitzgerald, 2011). A psychiatrist summed up the current status of ECT very well saying, “Quite frankly, the stigma pushes people away from it, and it pushes some psychiatrists away from even recommending ECT, but most of the stigma related to ECT really is related to misconception” (Dahl, 2008).

After researching electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), I have decided that if a close family member or even myself were severely depressed I would not support the use of ECT. Electroconvulsive therapy consists of an electrical shock, which is used to produce a seizure. Many people experience seizures due to some other type of illness or illnesses, and in these cases there is medicine taken in order to prevent these occurrences. In deciding my opinion on the topic of ECT I asked myself would I want to put myself or a loved one through what others are trying to avoid; a seizure. Although ECT has proven to be effective in some cases of depression, it has many risk factors involved and it does not ensure a lifetime with out the reoccurrence of

This paper is on epilepsy and seizures. The human brain is the source of all human epilepsy. (Steven C. Schachter, Patricia O. Shafer, Joseph I. Sirven, 2013) What is epilepsy? Epilepsy is sometimes referred to a seizure disorder, though not all seizures are related to epilepsy. According to the website Stony Brook Medicine, the reason a seizure occurs is because of an unexpected surge of electrical activity in the brain. (Stony Brook Medicine, 2014) Due to the overloading of electrical activity, it causes short-lived disturbance in the messaging system between the brain cells. The word epilepsy approaches from a Greek word 'epi' signifying 'upon or above' and the Greek word

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, the treatment has made a comeback, is greatly used, and proves to be

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,

The main concern of professional helping is trust. If there is not a trusting relationship between the practitioner and the patient, then the next steps are irrelevant. When there is a trusting relationship, then the patient/client will be comfortable conversing with the professional. ‘You have to be friendly and build up trust. You need to like your social worker because you will not trust them unless you know and like them. You will never trust someone you don’t like. But a social worker should not try to be friends with a client.’ (Aspinwall-Roberts). In this case, the following steps must be followed in order to have

The Clts Tx. plan consists of attending 3 group therapy sessions a week, each being two hours. Three 20 minute 1:1 sessions with the writer. The Clt and the writer agreed, along with staff supervision, to spread her hour session into three parts because, the Clt felt she “can’t sit still for that long I'll never make it, it’s too long”, and would be better and more beneficial for her. Clt is required to attend 4 mandatory A.A./N.A. meeting on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday the Clt is required to attend her meetings with a fellow Clt of the house. The Clt was also given a packet with the house rules and is required to follow them. The writer thinks that it would be more beneficial for the Clt to have group meetings twice a day for 30 minutes at a time every day. The Women’s Residence does not provide that service. The Clts attention span is short and the 120 minute group sessions, the Clt currently attends, are not beneficial and makes the Clt feel anxious. The Clt has expressed to the writer that she feels "stupid" when she doesn’t know what the group is talking about. She says she feels like a "guinea pig".

Initial session can bring anxieties to a client regardless of the possibility that treatment has been experienced some time recently. Every therapist has an alternate method for working, so the desires cannot be affirmed until the underlying session begins (Laureate Online Education, 2016).

These sessions will last 50-60 minutes. There are no restrictions to the amount of sessions a client could have. I charge £30 for each 50-60 minute session.

Epilepsy, also called seizure disorder, chronic brain disorder that briefly interrupts the normal electrical activity of the brain to cause seizures, characterized by a variety of symptoms including uncontrolled movements of the body, disorientation or confusion, sudden fear, or loss of consciousness. Epilepsy may result from a head injury, stroke, brain tumor, lead poisoning, genetic conditions, or severe infections like meningitis or encephalitis. In over 70 percent of cases no cause for epilepsy were identified. About 1 percent of the world population, or over 2 million people, are diagnosed with epilepsy.

Epilepsy can happen to anyone of any age. The largest(47%) percent of people, developing epilepsy for the first time, being children from birth to nine years of age. The next largest age group would be ten year olds to ninteen year olds at 30%. The least amount of first time seizures comes from the forty plus age group. (According to EFA publications) Over 2.5 million people suffer from epilepsy. The international league against epilepsy describes a seizure as an alternative term for "epileptic attack". Seizures vary in there length and severity. A "tonic-clonic" seizure can last for one to seven minutes. " Absence seizures usually last for a few seconds. However, complex partial seizure" may last for thirty seconds or two

Socrates, a famous philosopher, once said that “the unexamined life is not worth living”. That means that if one does not properly examine their life, it is in a sense, useless. Socrates’ maxim is the exact opposite of the statement “ignorance is bliss” and some will either agree with Socrates or disagree. The purpose of this philosophical essay is to suggest that Socrates’ maxim is likely to be considered correct.