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Learn More...What are the risks of shock treatment for depression?
Risks of shock therapy include slow heart beat (bradycardia) and rapid heartbeat (tachycardia), as well as memory loss, confusion and other cognitive effects. Persons at high risk include those with recent heart attack, uncontrolled blood pressure, brain tumors and previous spinal injuries.
How much does shock therapy for depression cost?
The latter meaning you employ the services of a trained professional to perform the sessions over a period of time. For the latter, a session typically costs $500. And the number of sessions will be variable by your specific case, but regardless of this, shock wave therapy is an alluring and effective treatment.
How does shock therapy help depression?
The electromagnet painlessly delivers a magnetic pulse that stimulates nerve cells in the region of your brain involved in mood control and depression. It's thought to activate regions of the brain that have decreased activity in depression.
What is the Best Shock Treatment?
Shock Treatment
- Lay the Person Down, if Possible. Elevate the person's feet about 12 inches unless head, neck, or back is injured or you suspect broken hip or leg bones.
- Begin CPR, if Necessary. For a child, start CPR for children. ...
- Treat Obvious Injuries
- Keep Person Warm and Comfortable. Loosen restrictive clothing. ...
- Follow Up. ...
See more
What does shock therapy do?
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.
Is shock treatment still used?
But electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is still being used -- more in Europe than the United States -- and it may be the most effective short-term treatment for some patients with depressive symptoms, a newly published review in the journal The Lancet suggests.
How does ECT work in depression?
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.
What is the success rate of ECT for depression?
These sessions improve depression in 70 to 90 percent of patients, a response rate much higher than that of antidepressant drugs. Although ECT is effective, its benefits are short-lived.
Does electric shock therapy 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.
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.
What are the long term side effects of electric shock therapy?
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been controversially associated with long-lasting memory problems. Verbal learning and memory deficits are commonly reported in studies of people with bipolar disorder (BD).
Who is a candidate for ECT?
People who have had ECT before and responded well are good candidates for ECT. Other first-line indications for the procedure include people who are catatonic or suffering from a form of depression known as psychotic depression (depression associated with delusions and hallucinations).
Does ECT damage the brain?
The review of literature and present evidence suggests that ECT has a demonstrable impact on the structure and function of the brain. However, there is a lack of evidence at present to suggest that ECT causes brain damage.
Is ECT worth the risk?
Risk Assessment of Electroconvulsive Therapy in Clinical Routine: A 3-Year Analysis of Life-Threatening Events in More Than 3,000 Treatment Sessions. Background: Extensive research has reported that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can be highly effective in approximately 80% of patients suffering from depression.
What are the side effects of shock treatment?
The most common side effects of ECT on the day of treatment include nausea, headache, fatigue, confusion, and slight memory loss, which may last minutes to hours. These risks must be balanced with the consequences of ineffectively treated severe psychiatric disorders.
Does ECT worsen anxiety?
The concern of some psychiatrists is that while ECT may help with depressive symptoms, it could worsen anxiety symptoms, including obsessional thoughts or panic attacks.
What is electroshock therapy?
Typically, electroshock therapy is a last-ditch effort used when all other treatment options have failed to offer symptom relief to those suffering from severe depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or other serious and debilitating mental illnesses . The current “modified” procedure for administering electric shock therapy is certainly more humane than earlier variations, however, the treatment still comes with a rather extensive list of long-term and short-term side effects. When faced with these possible side effects, patients are often forced to make hard choices about whether or not electroshock therapy is worth the risk.
What is TMS treatment?
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is an increasingly popular noninvasive treatment for individuals suffering from severe and treatment-resistant depression.
Shock Therapy: Process, Preparation, Outcomes and more
Krystina is a Technical Writer with a background in healthcare. She has spent the last 10 years working for an internationally recognized medical facility where she found her passion for making complicated topics easier to understand.
The Electroconvulsive Therapy Process
An ECT treatment regimen will typically include sessions two to three days a week for a total of six to 12 treatments. The schedule works out to about one month of treatment, although the course may continue for longer.
How to Prepare for Your Treatment
ECT sessions generally do not require much preparation, though you will need to go over the specifics with your doctor. Your doctor may give you orders to follow based on other health conditions you have or medications you take.
Potential Outcomes of Shock Therapy
Most people who undergo ECT will see a noticeable change in their symptoms. Some people will notice an immediate improvement after one session. However, it is more common to not see or feel a significant difference in symptoms for several sessions.
Summary
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can be used to treat major depressive disorde r, bipolar disorder, and other psychiatric conditions. It is often considered when other treatments have not helped.
A Word From Verywell
If you are wondering if shock therapy might be a treatment option for you, discuss it with your psychiatrist. While ECT can provide lasting relief from the symptoms of MDD, bipolar disorder, and similar conditions, it's not the right choice for everyone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Even though ECT has been around for nearly 90 years, scientists still are not quite sure why or how it benefits some people with depression.
What is insulin shock therapy?
Until the discovery of the tranquilizing drugs, variations of insulin-shock therapy (also called insulin-coma therapy) were commonly used in the treatment of schizophrenia and other psychotic conditions. With insulin-shock treatment, the patient is given increasingly large doses of insulin, which reduce the sugar content ...
What is the purpose of electroshock therapy?
Electroconvulsive, or electroshock, therapy, introduced in Rome in 1938 by U. Cerletti and L. Bini, has been widely used in treating disturbances in which severe depression is the predominant symptom.
How effective is insulin shock?
Insulin shock had its greatest effectiveness with schizophrenic patients whose illness had lasted less than two years ( the rate of spontane ous recovery from schizophrenia also is highest in the first two years of the illness). Insulin-shock therapy also had more value in the treatment of paranoid and catatonic schizophrenia than in ...
Is electroconvulsive therapy safe?
EMAIL. COMMENTS. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most powerful treatment psychiatry has on offer. It is effective in more than 80 percent of patients with serious depression – no drug comes anywhere close to that – and it is quite safe, the scare stories about memory loss being vastly overblown.
Does Prozac help with depression?
The available agents for depression, largely Prozac cousins, are unsuitable for serious, suicidal depression, often called melancholic depression. ECT works well in melancholic depression, yet patients and their families are often afraid of it and refuse referrals. The U.S. suicide rate has been rising dramatically.
What is the best treatment for depression?
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) for Depression. For some people with severe or hard-to-treat depression, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the best treatment. This treatment, sometimes referred to as "electroshock therapy," is often misunderstood and incorrectly portrayed by popular media as a harsh, cruel treatment.
How does electroconvulsive therapy work?
How Electroconvulsive Therapy Works. With ECT, an electrical stimulation is delivered to the brain and causes a seizure. For reasons that doctors don't completely understand, this seizure helps relieve the symptoms of depression. ECT does not cause any structural damage to the brain.
Does ECT work for depression?
Studies have shown that ECT works for many people who have treatment-resistant depression. One study of 39 people with treatment-resistant depression compared the effects of an antidepressant with ECT. After two to three weeks, 71% of people who received ECT had a positive response to treatment.
Is electroshock therapy a painless procedure?
In reality, it is a painless medical procedure performed under general anesthesia that is considered one of the most effective treatments for severe depression. It can be lifesaving.
Is ECT a life saving medication?
It can be lifesaving. ECT works quickly, which is why it's often the treatment of choice for people with highly severe, psychotic, or suicidal depression. For these people, waiting for antidepressants or therapy to work might be dangerous. However, the drawback is that the effects of ECT usually don't last, and further treatments will likely be ...
Why is electroconvulsive therapy used?
Why it's done. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can provide rapid, significant improvements in severe symptoms of several mental health conditions. ECT is used to treat: Severe depression, particularly when accompanied by detachment from reality (psychosis), a desire to commit suicide or refusal to eat. Treatment-resistant depression, ...
What is the test called when you have a seizure?
Internally, activity in your brain increases dramatically. A test called an electroencephalogram (EEG) records the electrical activity in your brain. Sudden, increased activity on the EEG signals the beginning of a seizure, followed by a leveling off that shows the seizure is over.
Mechanism
- The brain is still not well understood, nor is the reason for the treatment effects ECT (shock) therapy has on some individuals. It is known that ECT affects hormones, neuropeptides, neurotrophic factors, and neurotransmitters in the brain. All of this may come together to explai…
Preparation
- A full physical is generally needed before shock therapy. Because general anesthesia will be administered, one should not eat or drink 8-12 hours before the shock treatment. This helps to prevent any vomiting during the procedure. Other exams like an electrocardiogram (ECG) may also be given before ECT to ensure the procedure is safe and appropriate.
Treatment
- Shock therapy is performed in a hospital, sometimes in an area specifically set aside for this treatment. An intravenous (IV) is inserted to provide anesthetic medication. Vital signs are taken initially and continuously throughout the shock therapy treatment. An anesthesiologist administers anesthesia and after you are asleep, places a tube in your throat to help you breathe…
Results
- When you awake from the anesthesia, you may be confused and tired. You will likely experience short-term memory loss around the time of the procedure. With multiple treatments, this may increase. Adverse cognitive effects tend to be the most concerning factors around ECT and tend to affect the frequency and duration of treatments and whether ECT is offered at all. Your vital si…
Uses
- It is most common to see shock therapy used in severe cases of depression. Shock therapy is also performed to improve the condition of the following disorders:1
Risks
- The complications associated with ECT / shock therapy are often related to electrode placement with bilateral placement (an electrode by each temple) typically showing greater unwanted cognitive effects than unilateral placement (one electrode at the temple and the other on the forehead). Risks of shock therapy include slow heart beat (bradycardia) and rapid heartbeat (tac…
Prognosis
- Shock treatment for depression often produces a dramatic improvement in symptoms, especially in elderly individuals, sometimes during the first week of treatment. While it is estimated many of these patients will experience a future return of depression symptoms, the prognosis for each episode of depression is good. Mania also often responds well to shock treatment. The picture i…