Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation And Electroconvulsive Therapy Essay

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

When medication fails to relax the symptoms of mental illness, there are other options that are tried. Brain stimulation techniques such as electroconvulsive therapy, for example, can be used to treat illnesses that have not responded to standard treatments. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been used to treat psychiatric patients since the late 1938. The main reason for ECT treatments in North America and Europe were to treat mood disorders (bipolar depression, and unipolar depression) and schizophrenia (Pitidhammabhorn et al. 5). Milos Forman’s unrealistic portrayal of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest negatively shaped the general public’s perceptions of this medical procedure. As a result, many unenlightened

The most common type is Psychosocial therapy, which “explores an individual’s life to bring to light possible contributing causes of the present depression” (Ford-Martin). It helps the patient understand why they are depressed and teaches them healthy coping skills. Electroconvulsant therapy is used after all the other medications and therapies have been tested. This treatment uses “electrical pulses that move into the brain through electrodes on the patient’s head” (Ford-Martin). The electrical current relaxes the muscles and relieves depression.

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

Brain stimulation therapies are non pharmacological method which involves activating or touching the brain directly with electricity, magnets, or implants to treat depression and other disorders. Among many techniques, electroconvulsive therapy is the most researched stimulation therapy.

In the article by Shinsuke et al., the main objective was concern with the issue of the cerebral blood flow located in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in the brain, and how it correlated with the treatment response to low-frequency right prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in the treatment of depression. Overall, rTMS studies various cognitive functions to help with the ordeal of understanding the brain-behavior relationship in normal individuals, as well with those suffering from a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders. The influence of extraneous variables in the experiment were limited due to the participating patients (14 men, 12 women) all meeting the criteria of major depressive disorder labeled in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV. However, the patients varied on the specific kind of antidepressant they were prescribed.

Treatments using anti-depressants is well documented, but there are very few studies documenting only the use of psychotherapy. However, in one study done using the Cognitive–behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy (CBASP) as a maintenance treatment, the overall findings show that psychotherapy in itself can be successful. “ There were 82 patients who were treated with CBASP long term. Patients were chosen at random to reduce their treatment to monthly or to an observational status. The patients, only treated monthly with CBASP, showed a smaller amount of reoccurring symptoms then the patients in the observational status. These findings support the use of only CBASP as a maintenance treatment for depression.” (Klein, 2004)

The treatment provided to patients continually utilizes new and groundbreaking methods including medication, therapy and transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS therapy to patients suffering with clinical depression. Short,

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,

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

According to the DSM-5, to meet criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD), it is required that single or recurrent major depressive episodes (MDE) are present without mania and hypomania. To diagnose a patient for MDE, there must be presence of five symptoms, such as persistent low mood, insomnia or hypersomnia, anhedonia, more than 5% increment or decrement in total body weight over a month, inconclusiveness, suicidal thoughts, hypo or hyper motor activity, for at least 2 weeks for most part of the day. Furthermore, one of these five symptoms must be depressed mood or anhedonia. In DSM-5, the MDD diagnosis can be divided into 14 subcategories based on the severe depression specifiers, such as depression with psychotic features, with melancholic features, and with catatonic features (Uher, Payne, Pavlova, & Perlis, 2014). Major depression can persist for months or even years. Persistent depression can lead to other physical and mental health problems, such as substance abuse, suicidal ideations and catatonic behaviours. A patient with major depression can be treated using different treatment methods, such as pharmacological, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), group therapy, interpersonal therapy and Electroconvulsive therapy. Each treatment benefits a patient struggling with depression in a different way depending on a patient’s compliance and social support. In this paper, I am going to present ECT as an effective method to decrease the symptoms related to depression,

The rationale for ECT is to provide relief from the signs and symptoms of mental illnesses such as severe depression,

The authors not only provided a longitudinal data that demonstrated safety of SCC DBS for patients with MDD and BP, but also introduced DBS as an antidepressant intervention for patients with BP. However, further changes and clarifications are needed for efficacy measurements and parameter adjustments for changing the currents of stimulation and for reporting results. While this study has potentially profound clinical implications, the authors should resubmit the study with changes before being accepted in the publication.

Research is still being done to determine the best techniques to have the maximum impact when using TMS to treat depression. Currently, the length of stimulation and number of sessions is standardized, so little to no research is being completed. Two weeks of daily sessions with a 30-second cycle, 2 seconds stimulation and 28 seconds off, repeated 40 times per session. Since this protocol has been proven to be effective in countless studies, there is not a rush to find a better alternative. It was found that people who improve with low-frequency stimulation get worse with high-frequency stimulation,