The Effects Of Drug Therapy On The Lives Of An Individual

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

ECT has become much safer than the dangerous past shown in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Electroconvulsive therapy has little resemblance to that depiction. ECT brings about fast results compared to some other medications and treatments. After the shock, there is immediate relief to the symptoms of many mental illnesses. The electric current only lasts for a few seconds and the seizure lasts for about a minute. Many medications take weeks to become effective and ECT is an ideal option for those people that need the relief right away. ECT has often worked when many other treatments have

(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).

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

After the treatment was through the patient would be covered in sweat and sometimes the sheets would be stained with bodily fluids. The patients were observed to be less aggressive, less hostile and very calm. In the successful treatments, the patients’ delusions and hallucinations were no longer present and they also experienced less obsessive thoughts. Many people view this treatment as dangerous and did not use this method because of the risks involved. This therapy was slowly replaced with Electroconvulsive therapy and is rarely used

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was first developed in 1938. It has a history of abuse, exploited as a means of punishing or controlling people in mental hospitals, consequently ECT had poor reputation with negative depictions, but since then it has drastically improved with confirmed effectiveness. Despite the improvement in techniques, the use of ECT continues to decline since the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE,2003) states that it should only be administered to severely depressed patients for whom psychotherapy and medication have proved ineffective or when the condition is considered potentially life threatening. For example, when there is a risk of suicide or risk to others because ECT has much quicker results than

Dr. Max Fink was first and foremost among clinicians introducing ECT. He watched his first ECT as a medical student in the 1940’s and started giving it regularly during his residency in 1952, ECT’s heyday. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) has been used for nearly seventy years to treat mental illness. As ECT pioneer Max Fink puts it: except for penicillin for neuro-syphilis and niacin for pellagra, ECT for severe illness is the most effective treatment developed in the twentieth century. So clear are the benefits of ECT for patients who might otherwise commit suicide, or languish for years in the blackness of depression, that there should be little controversy over whether it is safe or effective. The assertion that ECT is associated with memory loss, but in the vast majority of patients, memory is restored within weeks after the last treatment, suggesting that no long-term damage to the brain’s memory capacities is sustained. In addition, it was used for the treatment of the deep sadness of melancholia, the delusion of psychotic depression, the unceasing restlessness of mania, or the hallucination of schizophrenia. ECT proved again and again that it was too valuable to be jettisoned with its sister therapies. It survived because it was needed and it worked.

The origin of these skeptical and fearful preconceptions is the imperfect history of the practice. The most primitive forms of electroconvulsive therapy began in the 1930s, with the injection of various chemicals into mental health patients, inducing seizures. The first published reports of such treatments came from Ladislas Meduna, a Hungarian neuropsychiatrist whose experiments sparked the interest of clinicians worldwide (Fink, Electroconvulsive 1). The first account of actual electroconvulsive therapy was in 1938 in Italy; neurologist Ugo Cerletti, and his assistant Lucio Bini, applied electrodes on both temples of the patient, and passed electricity through the brain, causing the patient to have a seizure (Fink, Electroconvulsive 2). The earliest ECT procedures were administered without anesthesia or muscle relaxants, and the seizures it induced were brutal, often resulting in fractures and severe memory loss. However, the success of this experimentation outweighed the trepidation it created, and the use of ECT progressed, using Cerletti’s studies as a foundation and orienting around the use of electric currents instead of chemicals. Despite its growing popularity and usage, through the 1950s, the procedure was administered recklessly, still lacking the use of anesthetics or muscle relaxants, and intensifying negative effects with implementation of a higher, more dangerous level of electrical current (Electroconvulsive Mayo 4-5). During the

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.

ECT treatment involves sending electrical impulses into the brain. These electrical impulses cause a seizure to occur. The patient is under an anesthetic while this happens and awakens with no memory of the event. Sometimes upon awakening they are confused and nauseous. However, the memory loss is temporary.

The purpose of the Freeman, Basson, and Crighton study published in the Lancet was to test the effectiveness of real electroconvulsive therapy compared to simulated electroconvulsive therapy in the treatment of a depressive illness using a randomized controlled trial.

This week I witnessed an Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) performed to a patient with severe depression. I always had the belief that this was a cruel procedure and that this was making the patient’s condition worse Now that I know how the procedure is done, and the safety precautions used by the doctor and the health care personal involve. They make sure that patients oxygen levels are kept to 100%, monitor heart rate with an ECG throughout the

Major depression affects over 4.8% among males, which exists as a mental disorder that alters their process to feel, think, and perform daily responsibilities. So, those that remain diagnosed with major depression are generally treated with medications, psychoanalysis, or a mixture of the two. In contrast, if treatment options do not reduce depression levels among patients, then the patient could be recommended for Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) by a consultant. As well, the purpose of the literature review is to determine if ECT seems to produce changes in the brain that could potentially reverse symptoms of specific mental disorders, and if ECT is effective for those that remain resistant to medications and psychotherapy. However, there

Would you send electric pulses through your brain to relieve mental illness? There is a treatment that can help. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can suppress or even cure some mental illnesses, but there are risks with the procedure. Shock Therapy is a treatment used to adjust a patient’s brain function in psychiatric disorders. There is different kinds of shock therapy, including Electroconvulsive Therapy, Insulin Therapy and Hydrotherapy. The risks range from muscle stiffness to memory loss, with the worst being long term memory loss, which can be permanent. The most common side effects are chronic headaches and migraines but they are not forever. This treatment is not just side effects and bad news. ECT can dramatically improve depression. ECT can also help medicate other mental illnesses such as: schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, and melancholia. This is not the only way to treat mental illness. There is a multitude of ways you can treat yourself or get treatment. To some this treatment is the best thing that could have happened to them. But in others the results were minimal. The visits are not long, but the treatment can last for several months. ECT is the introduction of electric current through one or two electrodes attached to the temples to deliver electrical impulses to the brain. This will result to a tonic seizure of 5 to 15 seconds after 70 to 130 volt current applied in 0.1 to 0.5 seconds up to a maximum of 2 seconds. The most common frequency of treatment is 6 –