when you have shock treatment for depression are there any long term pboblems?

To treat depression you will receive 12 sessions of electric shock therapy (three to four a week). However, it will not cure your depression. The MHA reports that about 50 percent of people will experience a relapse between six and 12 months after treatment.

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How does shock therapy for depression work?

Shock Treatment for Depression: How ECT Shock Therapy Works. Shock therapy is now known as electroconvulsive therapy or ECT. 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,...

What is ECT shock therapy for depression?

Shock Treatment for Depression: How ECT Shock Therapy Works. "Shock therapy" was so-called, as an electric shock is used to induce a controlled seizure intended as a treatment for chemical imbalances in the brain. Shock therapy is now known as electroconvulsive therapy or ECT.

Is shock therapy still used today?

Shock Therapy: Still Here, 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.

What is the success rate of shock therapy for depression?

One study, by the Consortium for Research in ECT found an 86 percent remission rate in those with severe depression. That study also found less chance of relapse if patients underwent follow-up treatments. The downside of shock therapy includes side effects such as headache, upset stomach, and muscle aches.

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What are the long term effects of shock treatment?

But some people experience more long-lasting or permanent memory loss, including losing personal memories or forgetting information they need to continue in their career or make sense of their personal relationships. Some people also find they have difficulty remembering new information from after they've had ECT.

What are the side effects of shock therapy?

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 shock therapy 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.

Can you recover from shock therapy?

You can generally return to normal activities a few hours after the procedure. However, some people may be advised not to return to work, make important decisions, or drive until one to two weeks after the last ECT in a series, or for at least 24 hours after a single treatment during maintenance therapy.

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.

Does ECT have long term side effects?

Some only lasted in the short-term, like headaches and tiredness, others were long-term e.g. memory being 'foggy'. Memory loss is the side effect that caused the most concern to people.

Can electric shock treatment cause dementia?

Conclusion: This study supports that ECT was not associated with the increased risk of dementia in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder, using the NHIRD.

Does ECT affect IQ?

However, former patients have publicly testified that ECT can result in a very significant (>30 point) permanent decrement in IQ score (Food and Drug Administration, 1982; Andre, 2001; Cott, 2005: p. 5) and have documented the claims by extensive neuropsychological evaluation.

Can ECT erase your memory?

ECT may never be appropriate for simply erasing a bad memory, Kroes says. But for people already undergoing the treatment for other reasons, ECT may allow them to gain control over crippling memories. For instance, a patient might target bad memories to be wiped out by recalling them just before treatment.

What is the success rate of ECT therapy?

Typically, ECT (whether inpatient or outpatient) is given two to three times a week for a total of six to twelve sessions. Some patients may need more or fewer treatments. These sessions improve depression in 70 to 90 percent of patients, a response rate much higher than that of antidepressant drugs.

Can ECT make you more depressed?

ECT can't prevent future depression, or fix any ongoing stresses or problems that are contributing to how you're feeling. Some people have very bad experiences of ECT, for example because they feel worse after treatment or are given it without consent. You might not want to risk the possibility of getting side effects.

Can ECT cause brain tumors?

The most common type of tumor was a meningioma, which was present in 16 patients (40%), with arachnoid cysts coming in second place with 11 patients (27.5%). Six patients (15% of the sample) manifested AEs after ECT.

What are the side effects of shock therapy?

The downside of shock therapy includes side effects such as headache, upset stomach, and muscle aches. Those are the most common, NIMH says. You may have memory problems, especially memory lapses “around the time of the treatment.”.

What happens after a shock?

Following the shocks, patients generally lapse into incoherence or a zombielike state. In six films, patients become markedly worse or die.”. But the treatment for severe mental disorders has been used, researchers say, in thousands of cases over the years with positive results, albeit sometimes with temporary side effects.

How effective is ECT?

ECT has been found to be effective in 50 to 60 percent of severe depression cases in which antidepressant drugs were ineffective. Such drugs have no effect on about a third of patients with severe depression.

Is shock therapy safe?

Thousands of cases have found shock therapy to be safe and effective, but with some side effects that dissipate over time. Learn about the pros and cons. You may have a stark view of shock treatment, as indelibly depicted in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”.

Does ECT help with depression?

One review noted that ECT increases the level of hormone s that are “disturbed” in depression. “Others have suggested that the electricity stimulates neural growth and helps to rebuild brain areas that are protective against depression,” according to Scientific American.

Is UBPS effective in treating depression?

A recent review of studies on UPBS found that that traditional ECT is “slightly” more effective in treating depression and requires fewer treatments, but that UBPS was nearly as effective with fewer cognitive side effects. ECT has been found to be effective in 50 to 60 percent of severe depression cases in which antidepressant drugs were ...

Is UPBS safe for mental health?

Used for about 70 years, shock treatment has seen many significant improvements — UPBS being the latest – and has been found to be “safe and effective,” according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

How does shock therapy feel?

How Shock Therapy Feels. 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 ...

What is shock therapy?

"Shock therapy" was so-called, as an electric shock is used to induce a controlled seizure intended as a treatment , primarily for mood disorders, although other conditions may be treated as well. Shock therapy is now known as electroconvulsive therapy or ECT.

How often do you go to the hospital for shock therapy?

A small number of patients are placed on maintenance shock therapy. This means they return to the hospital every 1-2 months, as needed, for an additional treatment. These individuals choose shock therapy because it can keep their illness under control and help them lead a normal and productive life.

What is the name of the drug that is used to treat seizures?

A paralyzing agent called succinylcholine is then administered to prevent the seizure from spreading to your body. The electrodes are then applied to your head with conducting jelly and a brief shock (less than 2 seconds) is administered.

How to know if you are recovering from shock?

Your vital signs will be monitored closely after the shock treatment to ensure proper recovery. You may feel head, muscle or back pain. Such discomfort tends to be relieved by mild medications. If any post-treatment effect is concerning you, you should talk to the treating physician immediately.

Where is shock therapy performed?

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.

Does shock therapy affect the brain?

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 explain how ECT works in treatment.

What is persistent depressive disorder?

Persistent depressive disorder (PDD) is defined as a depressive disorder with a minimum illness duration of two years, including four diagnostic subgroups (dysthymia, chronic major depression, recurrent major depression with incomplete remission between episodes, and double depression). Persistent forms of depression represent a substantial proportion of depressive disorders, with a lifetime prevalence ranging from 3% to 6% in the Western world. Growing evidence indicates that PDD responds well to several acute interventions, such as combined psychological and pharmacological treatments. Yet, given the high rates of relapse and recurrences of depression following response to acute treatment, long-term continuation and maintenance therapy are of great importance. To date, there has been no evidence synthesis available on continuation and maintenance treatments of PDDs.

What is maintenance therapy?

Continuation treatments are defined as treatments given to currently remitted people (remission is defined as depressive symptoms dropping below case level) or to people who previously responded to an antidepressant treatment. Maintenance therapy is given during recovery (which is defined as remission lasting longer than six months).

Is psychotherapy effective compared to no treatment?

For all other comparisons, the body of evidence was too small to draw any final conclusions, although continued or maintained psychotherapy might be effective compared to no treatment. There is need for more high quality trials of psychological interventions. Further studies should address health-related quality of life and adverse events more precisely, as well as assessing follow-up data.

Is there a direct comparison between antidepressants?

However, the body of evidence for this comparison was too small and uncertain to draw any high quality conclusions.

Does PDD respond to pharmacological treatment?

Growing evidence indicates that PDD responds well to several acute interventions, such as combined psychological and pharmacological treatments. Yet, given the high rates of relapse and recurrences of depression following response to acute treatment, long-term continuation and maintenance therapy are of great importance.

How long is a prospective study of subsyndromal and syndromal depressive symptoms?

A prospective 12-year study of subsyndromal and syndromal depressive symptoms in unipolar major depressive disorders.

How long does antidepressant treatment last?

The most commonly used long-term treatment is maintenance antidepressants. However, for most antidepressant drugs, the efficacy of treatment lasting more than 1 year is unknown. The absence of evidence of the long-term therapeutic effects of antidepressant drugs leaves uncertainty and invites controversy. In The Lancet Psychiatry, the Article by ...

How many sessions of CBT were used in the Cobalt trial?

In the CoBalT trial, 469 primary care patients with depressive symptoms of at least moderate severity despite adherence to antidepressant treatment were randomly allocated to be offered a course of 12 to 18 sessions of individual CBT or to continue their usual care that included antidepressants. Most participants had chronic and severe depression with comorbid anxiety disorders. Those who were offered the adjunctive CBT had fewer depressive symptoms and were more likely to fulfil criteria for response at 6 and 12 month follow-up.

How many points does Cobalt score on Beck Depression Inventory?

Years after receiving individual CBT and continued antidepressant treatment, the average CoBalT participant still scored 19 points on the Beck Depression Inventory, which puts them into the moderately depressed range. Although data for functional outcomes such as employment are missing, these symptoms probably continue to seriously affect quality of life and productivity. Therefore, clinicians and researchers should focus on strategies to increase the efficacy of the existing treatments and on developing more effective treatments for major depressive disorder.

How long does cognitive behavioral therapy last?

Six-year outcome of cognitive behavior therapy for prevention of recurrent depression. Duration of relapse prevention after cognitive therapy in residual depression: follow-up of controlled trial. that suggested that the effects of CBT for depression can last for years.

Is CBT effective for depression?

CBT as an adjunct to usual care that includes antidepressants is clinically effective and cost effective over the long-term for individuals whose depression has not responded to pharmacotherapy. In view of this robust evidence of long-term effectiveness and the fact that the intervention represented good value-for-money, clinicians should discuss referral for CBT with all those for whom antidepressants are not effective.

Does CBT work without boosters?

Although antidepressant drugs and brain stimulation treatments are effective only as long as the treatment is continued, CBT provides long-term benefits without continued treatment or booster sessions, which is probably because the participants learn skills that they continue practising after the treatment stops.

What movie was shock treatment?

Hard-to-watch scenes from movies like A Beautiful Mind and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest give the impression that the therapy is a primitive throwback to a time when clinicians had little to offer their depressed patients.

Who is most likely to benefit from electroconvulsive therapy?

The patient most likely to benefit from electroconvulsive therapy is one who is severely depressed, has not responded to drugs, and is suicidal, says well-known psychiatrist and ECT advocate E. Fuller Torrey, MD. Simply changing this patient's medication may not be enough if the patient is an immediate danger to himself. Torrey is the executive director of the Stanley Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Md.

Why is electroconvulsive therapy underutilized?

Torrey says electroconvulsive therapy is underutilized in the United States because it is still widely perceived by the public as "something akin to a medieval torture." That image has been fostered, he say, by well-funded opponents of ECT and psychiatry in general and by inaccurate Hollywood portrayals of the procedure, which typically show patients writhing in agony. In real life, ECT is done under general anesthesia so patients are unconscious during treatment.

Is ECT a good treatment for depression?

Researchers concluded that ECT remains an important treatment option for the management of severe depression. "Despite its image, ECT is a sophisticated and complex treatment that can be especially useful in patients who are not helped by drug therapy," researcher John Geddes, MD, of the University of Oxford in England, tells WebMD.

Is ECT more effective than drug therapy?

Findings from 18 studies involving 1,144 patients suggested that ECT was significantly more effective for the short-term treatment of depression than drug therapy.

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.

How does ECT affect the frontal lobe?

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. Psychiatry frequently takes this position. For example, antipsychotic drugs (which four of the nine patients were taking) also reduce the function of the frontal lobes, in this case by suppressing the main trunk nerves from deeper in the brain to the frontal lobes (dopamine neurotransmission). Proponents of the drugs then claim that the patients have an excess of activity in these nerve trunks, so that the patient is helped by damaging the region.

Does shock therapy cause brain damage?

A new study shows ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) causes brain damage? That's not what you will find in the many promotional press releases published in the mainstream media. As usual, biopsychiatric press releases always come out before the research articles are easily available, making critical analysis impossible until the wave of false promotional euphoria has passed. The Bloomberg News headline crowed: "Shock Therapy's Effect on Depression Discovered, Researchers Say." The Huffington Post news headline, posted March 20, 2012 declared "Shock Therapy's Effect On Depressed Brain Explained by New Electroconvulsive Therapy Study." Time Healthland's article was titled "How Electroconvulsive Therapy Works for Depression." Fox News' headline for the Reuters news story they carried said: "Study shows how electrotherapy may treat depression."

Is ECT a closed head injury?

For a long time now, I have been scientifically demonstrating that ECT is a closed-head injury in the form of an electrical lobotomy. Now we find that the ECT damage is sufficiently gross to show up on an MRI -- but we are told it's good for the patients. This is what I call "the brain-disabling principle of psychiatric treatment." Lobotomy, ECT and psychiatric drugs all share the common factor that they "work" by damaging the brain and suppressing brain function.

Is lobotomy a disconnectivity?

Advertisement. From its inception, psychiatry has promoted brain damage as treatment. Nothing has changed in this regard except the arguments are more subtle and lobotomy is now being called "disconnectivity.". The authors argue that the patients are helped because they do better on a checklist of depressive symptoms.

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.

What is the best treatment for depression?

Psychological counseling. Psychological counseling (psychotherapy) by a psychiatrist, psychologist or other mental health professional can be very effective. For many people, psychotherapy combined with medication works best. It can help identify underlying concerns that may be adding to your depression.

What type of therapy is used to help with depression?

Interpersonal psychotherapy focuses on resolving relationship issues that may contribute to your depression. Family or marital therapy. This type of therapy involves family members or your spouse or partner in counseling. Working out stress in your relationships can help with depression.

What is ECT therapy?

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). While you're asleep, a carefully measured dose of electricity is passed through your brain, intentionally triggering a small, brief seizure. ECT seems to cause changes in brain chemistry that can relatively quickly reverse symptoms of major depression. Although there are potential side effects, such as temporary confusion or temporary memory loss, a series of ECT treatments may provide significant relief of severe depression.

What to ask a psychiatrist about depression?

Consider your response to treatment, including medications, psychotherapy or other treatments you've tried.

How does transcranial magnetic stimulation work?

This type of treatment uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to improve symptoms of depression. An electromagnetic coil is placed against your scalp near your forehead. The electromagnet used in rTMS creates electric currents that stimulate nerve cells in the region of your brain involved in mood control and depression. Typically, this treatment is delivered over 30-minute sessions in rapid bursts. This treatment can now be delivered over briefer sessions with dosing called intermittent theta burst stimulation.

What to do if counseling doesn't work?

If counseling doesn't seem helpful, talk to your psychotherapist about trying a different approach. Or consider seeing someone else. As with medications, it may take several tries to find a treatment that works. Psychotherapy for depression may include:

What are some physical conditions that can cause depression?

Consider physical health conditions that can sometimes cause or worsen depression, such as thyroid disorders, chronic pain or heart problems

What are the differences between remote ECT and healthy subjects?

Compared with healthy subjects, patients had verbal learning and memory deficits. Subjects who had received remote ECT had further impairment on a variety of learning and memory tests when compared with patients with no past ECT. This degree of impairment could not be accounted for by illness state at the time of assessment or by differential past illness burden between patient groups.

What is CVMT in medical terms?

The Continuous Visual Memory Task (CVMT) uses a visual recognition procedure to measure the acquisition of visual memory discriminations and a delayed multiple choice recognition procedure.50It comprises 112 complex, ambiguous drawings and irregular figures that are presented sequentially for 2 seconds each. In addition, it includes a 30-minute delayed recall trial and visual discrimination task. It uses a visual recognition procedure to measure acquisition of visual memory discriminations and a delayed multiple choice memory recognition component.51The construct validity of the CVMT has been demonstrated in healthy adults50and in patient samples.51

What is CFQ40?

Subjects completed the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ40). This simple 25-item questionnaire provides a measure of individual's self-perception of memory impairment by asking subjects to estimate the frequency (never [0] to always [4]) of common memory errors, such as forgetting items to be purchased at a store. High scores on the CFQ indicate a greater degree of perceived memory impairment, and we have shown that subjects with a history of depression have elevated CFQ scores that are not a function of current mood state.41

What is the California verbal learning test?

The California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT42) is used as a standard neuropsychological tool to assess immediate and delayed verbal memory; it is sensitive to temporo-hippocampal dysfunction. 43Briefly, the task assesses memory of 16 items presented in 5 learning trials, followed by an assessment of memory after each trial. An interference list is presented after the fifth trial, followed by the assessment of memory recall from the interference trial and an immediate short delay free recall. Delayed recall and recognition are then assessed after about 20 minutes.44The CVLT is widely used to assess verbal learning memory in patients with mood disorders and other neuropsychiatric conditions.42

Do ECT patients have memory problems?

There were group differences on the CFQ, with patients having significantly greater perceived memory impairment than control subjects. Further, the ECT group had particularly high CFQ scores that exceeded those of the non-ECT group. Thus, even when such factors as diagnosis, illness burden, current symptoms and current medication use are comparable, patients with BD who have had ECT remotely perceive a greater severity and frequency of memory problems. This perceived impairment correlated with measured impairment, consistent with a previous study of patients with unipolar depression who were also assessed with the CFQ.41This finding is consistent with a recent report that patients who received ECT had memory complaints, even when they were interviewed on average 282 days after treatment concluded.26The results reviewed by Rose and colleagues25also support the notion that patients with ECT complain of long-lasting memory problems; however, to our knowledge, our study is one of few to compare memory complaints not only against healthy comparison subjects but also to a group of BD patients without ECT matched on other illness variables.

How to find recollection score?

Recollection scores were obtained by subtracting the probability of the incongruent trial (w hen study list pairs were the same as the low-frequency pair during training) from the con gruent trial (where study list pairs were the same as the high-frequency pair during training) probability. An estimate of habit is obtained by the formula habit equals incongruent probability divided by 1 minus the recollection.45

Is electroconvulsive therapy effective for BD?

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is effective for both the manic and depressed phases of bipolar disorder (BD) and is included as an option for refractory BD in the algorithms of several published guidelines.1–6A major concern regarding ECT as a treatment option is generally not whether it is effective but whether it is associated with long-term cognitive changes, particularly in various memory systems. The effect of ECT on memory continues to be studied,7–17discussed and debated.18–24Perhaps the most controversial issue is whether ECT results in long-term (usually defined as greater than 6 months) changes in anterograde or retrograde memory performance; this is also an issue of clinical relevance.

Terminology

Mechanism

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Treatment

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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)...

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