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Electric Shock Treatment for Depression

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a practice in which seizures are caused by running electrical currents through the body for the relief of major depression. First introduced in the 1930s, ECT remains a common, if not controversial, therapy for those suffering major mental ailment.

  1. Preparation

    • During ECT, a patient is given light anesthesia and muscle relaxers before being fitted with electrodes on the scalp. The electrodes are fitted to both sides of the head in bilateral placement, or one side of the head in unilateral placement. Unilateral placement is done with the electrode on the side of the non-dominant portion of the patient's brain, determined by tests before treatment. This practice is to reduce memory loss, a possible side effect of the treatment, or cognitive damage. The amount of electricity needed to cause a seizure varies from patient to patient.

    How it works

    • Electroshock therapy has been performed since the 1930s, yet there is still no consensus as to how or why it works in solving depression. The most popular idea is that it changes the central nervous system to change the way it processes electrical impulses. These electrical impulses control emotions in the brain, and once changed, cause different emotions to emerge.

    Dangers

    • Patients who have heart issues are not viable candidates for the treatment. There are dangers of throat issues from gagging as well as peripheral nerve palsy, or jitters. These cases emerged in 1 per 1,300 to 1,400 treatments. There is a very low rate of mortality during the process. ECT can cause short- or long-term memory loss, as well as an inability to digest current events into the memory. Doctors believe it is hard to differentiate memory loss due to treatment, or those due to the preexisting condition, making it hard to measure how much of a danger ECT poses in this regard.

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