Shocking

[Niveous]

Electroconvulsive therapy....Does it work and is it worth the risks? Discuss.

[fodroy]

i've heard it can cause you to lose your memory. apparently, hemingway blamed it for "putting him out of business".

but i honestly didn't think this treatment was still used.

[HeuristicsInc]

it's a lot less dangerous than it used to be.
they have made scientific advancements in this field, and yes, it is still used.
i only know of one person who has had it so i have no real information for you, niv.
-bill

[roymond]

apparently, hemingway blamed it for "putting him out of business".

Because clearly there could be no other explanation

[stueym]

<deep breath> ....okay for those of you who don't know I actually originally trained as a psychiatric nurse and practised for a number of years before moving to the comfortable affluence of the healthcare IT industry. Think I shared that with some of you in Boston.

Having participated in administering controlled ECT (general aneasthetic and muscles relaxants to reduce the trauma and physical damage that can occur) I have seen it be completely useless in lifting anyone from deep psychotic depression. However I have also seen it have a remarkable effect on some people where there is no other explanation for it than it worked. i.e. rapid change in mood/affect and functioning that could not be attributed to just getting better.

As to risks I have heard all the horror stories about diminished effect and loss of crativity (With Hemingway I would look at the detrimental effects of the self administered chemicals over the years rather than ECT ). In my personal experience I do not remember anyone who reported anything remotely like feeling loss/damage. During a course of treatment as peoples mood lifted they would become more labile (crying at the thought of what they now had to face, but that was often a positive sign as it showed that they actually gave a damn now).

What is more difficult is the whole issue of enforced treatment against an individuals will. Like much enforced psychiatric treatment including injected drugs, the law and medicine has recognized that without some third party judgement being applied in the patients best interest the majority of patients would not act in their own best interest due to their "perceived" inability to make an well informed judgement of what was in their best interest. As a nurse I was on occasions at odds with the doctors involved and we would counsel the patient to try to make them and their family aware of the risk. Two of my colleagues got suspended and one fired for taking that the step further of trying to convince the patient to actively resist the treatment. Guy got fired, patient got treated under section and nobody won out. Hard stuff and contentious too.

Of those patients who benefited, a number slipped back to become ill again (suffering similar psycho-affective symptoms) after as little as a few weeks to a few years. Some seemed to remain stabilised in their affective disorder for what seemd like permanent. However a cursory read of some old timey patients showed repeated ECT being conducted at 6-10 year intervals demonstrating that there may be no permanent for these patients.

All things considered I would say my personal opinion is that it should be a treatment of last resort and it appears to me in my experience to have a fairly limited benficial effect across all those treated. As a treatmment of last resort when all else appears to have failed I would retain it rather than ban it if only to have seen some terribly sad cases benefit and gain some relief from their "demons" through its application. Oh and it most definitely is a currently used treatment in psychiatric care.

That is all.

[Lyricburglar]

I didn't help my wife much - nor did it harm her particularly either. The short term memory loss was a bit scary for all concerned. It;s not something to enter into lightly