Popular scare stories have saddled electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) with a bad reputation. Perhaps most famously, the 1975 movie one flew over the cuckoo’s nest portrays “shock” treatment as a violent method of psychiatric control. It is true that, decades ago, ECT practices were crude and inured some patients. But your may be surprised to learn that, today, ECT is far and sway the most effective treatment available for severe depression and frequently works when medication does not. An extensive body of research indicates that roughly 85% of severely depressed patients go into remission after ECT (compared with 40-70% of patients who try antidepressants).This is despite the fact that patients on ECT are typically the most difficult to treat.
How it Works
During therapy, doctors use electric currents to provoke a seizure. Scientists still aren’t sure why it works, but the process has been likened to rebooting a computer or even hitting a malfunctioning machine to make it work. The seizures affect a variety of nerve cells and hormones and also alter brainwave speed for weeks after treatment: ECT may derive its efficacy from a combination of these changes.
Doctors typically recommend ECT for people with serve depression who have not responed to psychotherapy and several different antidepressants. ECT can also treat bipolar disorder and psychotic depression characterized by paranoia and delusional thoughts. Moreover, it serves as an emergency measure for people contemplating suicide or who have stopped taking care of theselves, regardless of whether they have tried medication. In these circumstances, time is the essence, and while finding the right anthidepressant and tailoring its dosage and take weeks or even months., ECT usually starts relieving depression wihin three weeks. During treatment, the most common side effects are temporary learning problems and short-term memory loss, but these usually usually resolve in fact ECT does less damage to the brain than directly linked to treatment has been curtailed in recent years by applying electrodes unilaterally (to just one side of the head).
Some people, particularty seniors, permanently forget events that occurred aroung and during the period of treatment, but whether ECT is entirely responsible is hotly debated. Some experts believe memory loss to depression itself, which harms cognition.
