What are your experiences with electroshock therapy?
The electroshock therapy, according to my mother, lifted me from a depression into a brief silliness (the euphoric high that typically follows ECT), quickly followed by an even worse depression than before. And it left me with severe memory loss, and I believe some cognitive damage."
Is electroshock therapy for depression all it's cracked up to be?
There are many who claim electroshock therapy for depression, or ECT, isn't what it's cracked up to be. Here's the story of one person who was harmed by electric shock treatment. It is not meant to be representative of all people who have undergone electroshock therapy.
Is electroshock therapy safe for teens?
Teens Given Electroshock Treatment Showed Few Bad Effects. Shrouded in controversy but believed beneficial by many experts, ECT involves giving electrical shocks to the brain. It has been found to relieve severe depression and other mental illnesses, particularly in people who are not helped by medications.
Can electric shock therapy Save Your Life?
Here's the story of one person who was harmed by electric shock treatment. It is not meant to be representative of all people who have undergone electroshock therapy. To be fair, there are also ECT stories where people say electroconvulsive therapy saved their life.
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What do they put in your mouth during ECT?
During the ECT treatment, you will receive medication through the IV that will put you to sleep for the duration of the treatment. Once asleep, you will receive a muscle relaxant to help minimize movement during the procedure and a bite block will be placed in your mouth to protect your teeth.
Does electric shock treatment hurt?
No, the ECT procedure isn't painful. ECT involves general anesthesia, which means you're asleep while the procedure is happening. After the procedure, you may have some side effects, such as headache, nausea or sore muscles, but these are all normal.
Is a bite block used for ECT?
The ECT Cotton Bite Block is a single-use (disposable) oral protector for use during ECT to protect the patient's airway, lips, teeth and tongue. It is placed between the back molars, with the tongue medial, with part of the bite block sticking out of the patient's mouth to keep the mouth open.
What happens in electric shock therapy?
Overview. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a procedure, done under general anesthesia, in which small electric currents are passed through the brain, intentionally triggering a brief seizure. ECT seems to cause changes in brain chemistry that can quickly reverse symptoms of certain mental health conditions.
What does electroshock therapy feel like?
When you awaken, you may experience a period of disorientation lasting from a few minutes to several hours. Headaches, jaw pain, and muscle soreness may occur. ECT requires a series of treatments, often initiated two to three times a week for a few weeks and then the frequency is tapered down.
Can electroshock therapy erase memories?
One of the known side-effects of ECT is memory loss. According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, that memory loss is normally temporary, but some patients report severe and long-lasting memory losses after ECT. This study took advantage of this side-effect to see if it was possible to target specific memories.
What should you not do before ECT?
What happens during an ECT procedure? Before ECT, patients are asked not to eat or drink from midnight the night before treatment. During the procedure, the patient receives a short acting anesthetic agent which puts the patient to sleep for approximately 5-10 minutes.
Can you drive after ECT treatment?
Can Patients Drive After ECT? Patients are not allowed to drive during the entire ECT course and for 2 weeks after the last treatment in an acute series of ECT. An acute series is usually 3 treatments a week for 6 to 12 treatments. Patients who receive maintenance ECT can drive except on the day of ECT.
What anesthesia is given for ECT?
The anesthetic management for ECT typically involves the use of an induction dose of an IV anesthetic (e.g., methohexital or propofol) followed by a muscle relaxant (e.g., succinylcholine or mivacurium).
Is shock therapy still used today?
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a procedure used to treat certain psychiatric conditions. It involves passing a carefully controlled electric current through the brain, which affects the brain's activity and aims to relieve severe depressive and psychotic symptoms. Modern day ECT is safe and effective.
What is the difference between electroshock therapy and electroconvulsive therapy?
Electroshock therapy, also known as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), is a treatment for severe major depression, bipolar depression, and other mental health conditions. Psychiatrists may recommend ECT when a person does not respond well to other treatments.
Can ECT change your personality?
ECT does not change a person's personality, nor is it designed to treat those with just primary “personality disorders.” ECT can cause transient short-term memory — or new learning — impairment during a course of ECT, which fully reverses usually within one to four weeks after an acute course is stopped.
When is ECT administered?
Promotional materials are careful in describing the procedure and present a picture that’s quite benign: “ECT treatment is generally administered in the morning, before breakfast,” reads one brochure. “Prior to the actual treatment, the patient is given general anesthesia and a muscle relaxant.
Why did terror stalk the halls of euthanasia hospitals?
According to history professor Henry Friedlander, “Terror stalked the halls of the euthanasia hospitals not only because patients feared being selected for killing at any time or because some of the staff beat and maltreated them, but also because some medical procedures imposed unusual pain.”.
Why do we use higher voltages in the brain?
Much higher voltages are employed in the modern procedure because muscle relaxants and anesthetics raise the seizure threshold, with more electricity required to produce a seizure. The greater heat and electricity themselves cause more brain cell death, he says.
What machines were used in the Moroccan prison system?
The center also had several Page-Russell electroshock machines, which were routinely used on prisoners. During the post-shock periods, Moroccan physicians questioned the detainees, seeking information about opponents to the king.”.
Does electricity shock the brain?
And Baughman says using electricity to shock the brain into a seizure—no matter how you do it—results in real and lasting harm. “You are creating a seizure which is prima facie evidence of brain damage,” he observes.
Does electric current cause seizures?
While the modern procedure is generally carried out without busted teeth and the more grisly features of its early practice, the principle is still the same: Electric current blazes through the brain to provoke a seizure—the logic being that seizures occurring in the brain have some therapeutic benefit, somehow.
Does ECT cause memory loss?
The brain damage caused by ECT results in varying degrees of memory loss and intellectu al and cognitive impairment , says Dallas psychiatrist Colin Ross. Ross also cites “substantial evidence” that the death rates from natural causes rise following an ECT regimen, particularly in the older patient population.
How long did it take Juli to recover from ECT?
It took Juli a year to emerge from the fog that resulted from the ECT. It took six years to recover to the point where she was able to fully articulate what happened. "I have spent the last years reading the research, including the studies that ECT experts use to promote the treatment," says Juli.
When did ECT come out?
ECT appeared on the Internet in 1995 after Juli underwent electroshock therapy for depression herself the year before and having what she says was a very bad result. I am a woman who was severely depressed (re-diagnosed as bipolar disorder during the ECT treatments) and had ECT in 1994.
Is electroshock therapy for depression?
There are many who claim electroshock therapy for depression, or ECT, isn't what it's cracked up to be. Here's the story of one person who was harmed by electric shock treatment. It is not meant to be representative of all people who have undergone electroshock therapy. To be fair, there are also ECT stories where people say electroconvulsive ...
How many tests did the researchers do to determine if a teenager had ECT?
After being given more than six tests that measure brain functioning and memory, the researchers concluded that there were no significant differences between the teens who had ECT and those who didn't -- and that, intellectually, both had progressed normally for their age.
What is ECT therapy?
Vital Information: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), giving electrical shocks to the brain, is a quick and effective way to treat patients with severe depression who do not respond to medications. Adolescents who undergo the procedure do not experience any long-term memory loss or brain damage, according to a new study from Paris.
Can you get ECT in France?
He adds that in France, there are no restrictions on who can receive the treatments, in contrast to the U.S. Several states forbid the use of ECT for people under age 18. "This is a problem, because I know of some extreme cases where patients should have had ECT and could not," Cohen says.
Is ECT justified in youth?
Cohen says fears about the use of ECT in youth "are not justified" and that some misunderstanding of the procedure comes from a lack of recognition of the severity of patients' illnesses. When it is used appropriately, the benefits are enormous, Cohen says. "When ECT works it is unbelievable; it is like a miracle.
Does shock therapy cause memory loss?
March 24, 2000 (Washington) -- Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), or "shock therapy," did not cause long-term memory loss or brain damage in adolescents who underwent the procedure for severe depression, according to a new study. Shrouded in controversy but believed beneficial by many experts, ECT involves giving electrical shocks to the brain.
Can ECT cause memory loss?
And despite popular beliefs, many studies show people who have ECT do not suffer any long-term memory loss or other brain impairment.
Can teens take ECT?
He adds that the procedure can be especially beneficial to teens, who often do not take their medications. "I have had inpatients who were fiercely, fiercely ill, who were less than 20 years old, for whom ECT was necessary and who were helped by it," says Bodkin. "You cannot parent someone out of the need for ECT.".
What is electroshock therapy?
Electroshock therapy is a psychiatric treatment that can provide relief from mood disorders, such as severe depression and bipolar disorder, that haven’t responded to other forms of treatment like antidepressants (drugs used to treat depression and other conditions).
Living with severe depression
Cheryl Lattimore, 64, has been battling depression since her early 20s – including severe depression later in her life.
When the clouds parted
Cheryl began receiving ECT from Dr. Thompson and his team at Atrium Health, one of the few healthcare systems in the region offering ECT and one of the most experienced, having performed thousands of ECT procedures.
Where are bilateral ECT electrodes placed?
The method used was bilateral ECT -- the most grossly damaging and most commonly used form of the treatment. Both electrodes are placed over the temples, overlapping the frontal lobes of the brain.
Why are patients helped by the checklist?
The authors argue that the patients are helped because they do better on a checklist of depressive symptoms. In this study, the checklist was administered after the last ECT, the period of time when the patient's brain is most acutely disturbed and the individual is frequently disoriented and even delirious.
What happens to the brain after a brain injury?
After brain injury -- especially to the highest centers which express emotional awareness, self-insight, and judgment -- individuals stop reporting their upset or distressing feelings. They have either lost awareness or they are too apathetic to care anymore. That, again, is the lobotomy effect.
Does ECT affect the brain?
Using a functional MRI in nine patients, the authors of the study conclude, "Our results show that ECT has lasting effects on the functional architecture of the brain.". The result of these lasting effects is "decrease in functional connectivity" with other parts of the brain. In other words, the frontal lobes are cut off from the rest of the brain.
Is ECT the best treatment for depression?
The media coverage was unquestioning and wholly positive. ECT is touted as the best treatment for depression and we are told that science has finally, after more than 70 years, found out how it works. The method used was bilateral ECT -- the most grossly damaging and most commonly used form of the treatment.
Can ECT patients recover?
We can only hope that these victims of ECT will recover with time, but the most extensive long-term follow-up study indicates that most ECT patients will never recover from the damage in the form of persistent severe mental deficits. Since the patients had all been heavily medicated in the past, and were continued on medications ...
Does ECT cause brain damage?
This new study contradicts claims by shock advocates such as psychiatrist David Healy that ECT does not cause brain damage. The report argues that this ECT effect supports the idea that depressive patients have too much activity in their frontal lobes and are returned to normal bv damaging the offending area of the brain.
When to use ECT?
ECT is generally used only when medicines or other less invasive treatments prove to be unhelpful. It is also used when mood or psychotic symptoms are so severe that it may be unsafe to wait until drugs can take effect. ECT is also often thought to be the treatment of choice for severe mood episodes during pregnancy.
How often is ECT given?
ECT is usually given up to three times a week, typically for two to four weeks. After that, maintenance treatment can continue weekly or monthly, depending on the person's needs. ECT is among the safest treatments for severe mood disorders, with most risks being related to the anesthesia.
What is ECT therapy?
Bipolar Disorder and Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Electroconvulsive therapy, also known as ECT or electroshock therapy, is a short-term treatment for severe manic or depressive episodes, particularly when symptoms involve serious suicidal or psychotic symptoms, or when medicines seem to be ineffective. It can be effective in nearly 75% of ...
What is an ECT in a maniac?
In electroconvulsive therapy, an electric current is passed through the scalp to cause a brief seizure in the brain. ECT is one of the fastest ways to relieve symptoms in people who suffer from mania or severe depression. ECT is generally used only when medicines or other less invasive treatments prove to be unhelpful.
How long does ECT last?
Other possible side effects of ECT include: These side effects may last from several hours to several days. About a third of people who have ECT report some memory loss, but this is usually limited to the time surrounding the treatment.