The Use Of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

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

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.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), formerly known as electroshock therapy, is a treatment for mental illnesses that runs small electric currents through the brain, with the intention of bringing on a brief seizure. The goal is to change brain chemistry to reverse symptoms of certain mental illnesses. During the 1940s-50s, ECT was the most effective way of treating certain mental illnesses and was used frequently throughout many countries (Kendell, 1982). One of the main illnesses ECT is used for is depression, but it is also used for other mental illnesses, such as mania and some cases of schizophrenia. Patients undergo ECT about three times a week, totaling six to twelve sessions. This is an important topic to research because ECT is known to

Several factors can cause brain injury such as a stroke, use of drugs, fever, and more. By having these factors affect the brain, it can be severe enough to cause a seizure. Though brain injury can provoke seizures, other factors “such as increased physical activity, emotional stress, excessive fatigue, alcohol or caffeine consumption, or certain foods or chemicals” (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2016, p.859), can all lead to causing a seizure. A healthcare provider may prescribe a patient Carbamazepine and Dilantin. As for Dilantin, it can help with the “treatment/prevention of tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizures and complex partial seizures” (Skyscape, 2015); reducing the occurrence of the body’s stiffness and jerking

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,

However, some people have side effects when taking the medications prescribed. But the doctors and patients work together to pick the right medication and dose. Psychosocial treatments are meant to relieve the symptoms of hallucinations and confusing behavior. This should help since schizophrenic patients may struggle to understand information and use it to make decisions. This form of treatment is most helpful after a patient's doctor finds a medication that is best for the patient, which can help patients learn how to cope. A treatment people may consider is electroconvulsive therapy. It was said that this would be helpful in severe cases of schizophrenia. According to webmd in the article “Schizophrenia: Treatment and Care”, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is regularly effective for the schizophrenia subtype catatonia, which causes a person body unable to move. There have been different opinions regarding the use of electroconvulsive therapy as a form of treatment. Although treatments work differently for some people, one may say this type of treatment can be too excessive and this should not be considered as there are many forms of treatments that should

Electroconvulsive Therapy, one of the most effective treatments of severe depression, has potentially good and adverse consequences. The most common side effects of ECT include headaches, memory loss, increased depression, confusion, and other physical symptoms. ECT, however, can increase the mood of the patient as well as decrease the remission rate for depression. Experiences with this type of therapy

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.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) involves putting the patient under anesthesia and placing electrodes on the patient’s scalp (“Electroconvulsive Therapy,” n.d.). Electric currents are passed through the brain from the electrodes, triggering a brief seizure. This causes changes to the brain chemistry that can reverse symptoms of mental illnesses (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2015). During the process, heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen level are monitored (“Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT),” n.d.) and an electroencephalogram records the electrical activity in the brain (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2015). The whole procedure takes about 5-10 minutes (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2015). ECT is generally used to treat depression that is unresponsive to other forms of treatment

In asylums, forms of treatment often varied but remained cruel and almost always consisted of causing pain to the patients in order to get results. One of the most common methods of treatment was electroconvulsive therapy. Also known was shock therapy, electroconvulsive therapy was mainly used to treat schizophrenia, severe depression, and homosexuality(Timeline,2). Discovered by Italian neurologist, Dr. Ugo Cerletti. He first used the electroshock to provoke repeatable reliable epileptic fits in dogs and other animals ("The History of Shock Therapy in Psychiatry "). The process involved alternating current between the skull, ceasing consciousness in the patient and causing a seizure. The treatment was typically done two to three times a week,

passed through the brain, intentionally triggering a brief seizure. ECT seems to cause changes in

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).

Once electricity was invented, psychologists and scientists alike utilized this new tool in hopes of curing a range of mental illnesses, physical ailments, and diseases. In the 18th and 19th centuries European researchers applied electricity to the hands, neck, spinal column, kidneys, and buttocks of patients attempting to treat physical impairments, like blindness, to schizophrenia. The first documented use of electricity to treat melancholia, was Giovanni Aldini, a professor at the Bologna University in 1801. Aldini believed that the use of electricity by itself was therapeutic. The difference between simply using electricity and electroconvulsive therapy is the stimulation of a grand-mal seizure, without a seizure the treatment is not efficacious. The two Italian psychiatrists credited with discovering ECT plainly stated that electricity is simply the easiest way to induce a seizure;