Highly criticized in the 1950’s and 1060’s, shock therapy –or, more accurately, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)- has recently reestablished credibility with mental health professionals. The treatment consists of applying electric current to the patient’s temples for a fraction of a second.
The patient loses consciousness, has a convulsion similar to an epileptic seizure, and then falls into a comalike sleep for a few seconds. More than 30,000 patients each year –primarily the victims of severe depression, undergo new, improved forms of ECT without fear of physical harm or significant memory loss.
Much has changed since the days of Olivia De Havilland’s horrifying portrayal of the experience in The Snake Pit, or of Ken Kesey’s indictment of its misuse in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Patients are thoroughly anesthetized and given muscle relaxants before treatment to prevent the jerky movements that once cause bones to break. Oxygen is administered during treatment to prevent brain damage, and new techniques dramatically reduce the risk of memory loss.
In unilateral ECT, for instance, electrodes are attached not one on each temple but one on the right temple and one on the top right half of the head to avoid transmitting current through the brain’s left hemisphere, where verbal memory centers. Brief-pulse therapy uses the lowest effective electrical current; voltage ascends rapidly to a high point, is maintained momentarily, and then drops precipitously before the cycle is repeated again.
Curiously, doctors still are not sure how shock therapy works. The prevailing theory holds that electrically induced seizures produce changes in brain chemistry. While some critics still maintain that even improved methods can result in memory loss, the National Institutes of Health gave the treatment its approval in 1985, after a blue-ribbon panel concluded that shock therapy is “demonstrably effective for a narrow range of severe psychiatric disorders, including depression, mania, and schizophrenia. RD.
Is Shock Therapy Still Used to Treat Depression? Highly criticized in the 1950’s and 1060’s, shock therapy –or, more accurately, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)- has recently reestablished credibility with mental health professionals. The treatment consists of applying electric current to the patient’s temples for a fraction of a second. The patient loses consciousness, has a convulsion similar to an epileptic seizure, and then falls into a comalike sleep for a few seconds. More than 30,000 patients each year –primarily the victims of severe depression, undergo new, improved forms of ECT without fear of physical harm or significant memory loss. Much has changed since the days of Olivia De Havilland’s horrifying portrayal of the experience in The Snake Pit, or of Ken Kesey’s indictment of its misuse in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Patients are thoroughly anesthetized and given muscle relaxants before treatment to prevent the jerky movements that once cause bones to break. Oxygen is administered during treatment to prevent brain damage, and new techniques dramatically reduce the risk of memory loss. In unilateral ECT, for instance, electrodes are attached not one on each temple but one on the right temple and one on the top right half of the head to avoid transmitting current through the brain’s left hemisphere, where verbal memory centers. Brief-pulse therapy uses the lowest effective electrical current; voltage ascends rapidly to a high point, is maintained momentarily, and then drops precipitously before the cycle is repeated again. Curiously, doctors still are not sure how shock therapy works. The prevailing theory holds that electrically induced seizures produce changes in brain chemistry. While some critics still maintain that even improved methods can result in memory loss, the National Institutes of Health gave the treatment its approval in 1985, after a blue-ribbon panel concluded that shock therapy is “demonstrably effective for a narrow range of severe psychiatric disorders, including depression, mania, and schizophrenia. RD.
