Should Electroconvulsive Therapy Ever Be Used to Treat

Electroshock therapy is the process of electroshocking the brain of a human, this a process that takes multiple sessions (CBS News). ECT caused critical seizures. Doctors used this method to cure of reduce schizophrenia. Electroshock therapy was performed daily, it was known referred to as “The shock of the day” (D’Antonio). Doctors saw ECT as a easy and fast way to cure a patient.

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.

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

Electroshock therapy is most effective for severe depression. People who need ECT the most are the ones who do not respond well to other treatments or have suicidal thoughts. There are other treatments for depression besides electroshock therapy such as medication; however, there are people who medication does not help. There is a kind of checklist that the doctor goes by that shows him that the shock therapy is needed. The first thing the doctor assesses is if the patient is unable to tolerate the side effects of the medication. In addition, he looks at if they responded well to a previous round of ECT rather than medication. There also may be reasons that

In essence, what happens is that the individual is dazed, confused, and disoriented, and therefore cannot remember or appreciate current problems. The shocks are then continued for a few weeks (sometimes several times a day) to make the procedure 'take,' that is, to damage the brain sufficiently so that the individual will not remember, at least for several months, the problems that led to his being shocked in the first place. The greater the brain damage, the more likely that certain memories and abilities will never return. Thus memory loss and confusion secondary to brain injury are not side effects of electroshock; they are the means by which families (perhaps unwittingly) and psychiatrists sometimes choose to deal with troubled and troublesome persons”

Although more SZ patient improved with real ECT, which compared to placebo, when comparing to antipsychotics medication, the drugs are more beneficial. There was some limited evidence to suggest that ECT combined with medication resulted in greater improvement in mental state. The conclusion was that a combination of drugs and ECT could be useful if a rapid reduction of symptoms is required or when patients don’t respond well to drugs alone. (Tharyan and adams 2005)

(Nordenberg, 4-6). People with milder forms of depression may respond favorably to psychotherapy; however, it is common for people with moderate to sever depression to benefit from both the use of anti-depressants and psychotherapy. Lastly, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is used by people who suffer from severe depression or by people whose depression is life threatening or for those who cannot take anti-depressant medications. ECT is most effective where anti-depressants can't provide sufficient relief of symptoms. In order for ECT to be effective, several sessions are necessary, usually three sessions per week. (5). ("Depression: An Overview" 5-7).

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

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.

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

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

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

The practice of electroconvulsive therapy has been a subject around which controversy thrives for decades since its original institution. Public fears stem from all kinds of sources whether they be rational and claim base in science, based on the social context surrounding administration of the treatment, or simply based on the fact that inducing convolutions through electric shocks to the head seems like a peculiar and disturbing manner in which to treat an illness. Some ethical resistance to the treatment may have been born in the 60s when it received attention in various forms of popular media. Ken Kesey’s book and eventual movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, depicts ECT as an oppressive tool of the system, used to stifle and

seizure through controlled electric shock, under anesthesia. The process itself is under scrutiny because it is not entirely understood, which is main a reason why it is only considered in the direst of cases. ECT tends to have severe physical health risks and with the introduction of newer and less harmful antidepressant drugs, it is being used far less often (Comer, 2005). This new class of drugs includes three main types; monoamine oxidase (MAOI) inhibitors, tricyclics and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

For the purpose of this assignment the experience of attending Electro-Convulsive Therapy will be discussed. It will include rationale for the procedure, an account of the procedure and the student nurses reflection on the experience using Gibbs’ model of reflection (Jasper 2003). Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a medical treatment for severe mental illness in which a small, carefully controlled amount of electricity is introduced into the brain. This electrical stimulation, used in conjunction with anaesthesia and muscle relaxant medications, produces a mild generalised seizure or convulsion (Mankad et al 2010).