A Video Overview of Electroconvulsve Therapy

[koochy79]

ECT saves lives too. When administered correctly and NOT forced on people it is a HUGE option that snaps people out of depression. It helped me..

[mysonywalkman1978]

Horrible for lobotomy or therapies without anesthesia. Shocking moments of the past, shown again and again by haters of ect. Yes, it was a torture in the past, but today depressive patients are very grateful to receive this option when antidepressants fail.

[jeremyrobertsmd]

Like all procedures in medicine, there is a risk to benefit ratio. Most would oppose cutting open a human being to pull out an organ, but appendectomies and cholecystectomies happen all the time. Why? Because for those people leaving them in sucks more than taking them out by relatively violent means. Same with ECT. For those that don't need it, GREAT. For those that do, I've seen life after life changed for the better by the procedure, and VERY few that would have taken it back.

[cmdodanli]

They are not saying the true about the ECT... My brother goes under ECT he lost his memory, inteligence, he become like child mind person... Stop ECT... it is not humanist way of therapy for the people... I don't think that any doctor will be volunteer to receive ECT... But they apply this method to other people... this is the immoral point of ECT...

[Napalmxxx2]

here's a therapy for ya, try getting too drunk to stand up, that will keep ya from thinking the world sucks.

[sriwai1]

@Napalmxxx2 thank god somebody esle thinks like me haha i was beggining to think the whole world had gone mad !

[MassDeportation]

ECT is a barbaric practice and should be banned. It doesnt MATTER what the forms say or what the law says. When they have you prisoner in a mental hospital they can do whatever they want with you, drug you torture you rape you coerce you and you WILL sign whatever they tell you to sign. They can FUCK you and then zap you over and over again to make you forget, or say you forget. They can even RAPE old men. Because if they try to tell somebody, they wont be believed.

[koochy79]

@MassDeportation And you have experience in this matter?

[diddymuck]

this looks like criticism rather than information. 90 percent of methods used to control depression are failures. This includes modern medicine. Why single out ECT?

[obvlexi]

ECT destroyed my life. it runed me. i cant remember my whole life and cant do anything anymore

[BrazilianGirlDoll]

ECT IS effective in cases of major depression that are not responsive to any of the first line therapies...and it can be a better choice for depression cases in pregnancy...lay people have this myth that ECT is torture...but you are a neurologist and post this 70s video full of myths...that will mislead people to believe that ECT is a torture...SIGH

ECT works as a re-start to the brain...like a heart in fibrillation...you shock to restart the pace, in a new rythm...same principle for ECT.

[BabiesWearDiapers]

I guess I agree that it obviously isnt torture...but it DOES cause brain damage..but I am also guessing that brilliant ejumakated docs know a little more than the avg joe on this..and its not like its a common type of medicine.

Interesting that you say it works to restart the brain. I have used OTC cranial electro stimulators that have taken me out of depressions..i'm guessing theyre ultra light weight compared to ect, but same concept? then again, i'm not a doc..so who knows.....

[BrazilianGirlDoll]

@BabiesWearDiapers Yes, exactly, same concept but "lighter"...then again, it's never the first choice, with rare exceptions.

[nomidinit]

I had ECT a few months ago. I was in a very black depression off and on for a few years. Antidepressants did nothing for me. I remember nothing about my past since around the year 2000. Recent memory built since I completed the treatment sometimes fades. After many tests it's been "decided" that I have permanent brain damage effecting my memory. HOWEVER...I'd do it again without a question. Friends tell me how I was. I seemed to be "cured". I feel concerned about the future, but happy.

[jellyfishattack]

Antidepressants - 18 different ones singly as well as with adjuncts - $10,0000/year- were 100% useless to me. ECT WORKED!! No one knows how ECT works, but no one knows how any antidepressants work either. It's too damn easy to oppose ECT if you're one of the lucky ones for whom antidepressants actually work.

[midnightgardner]

Early use of shock therapy was indeed primitive. However, so was conventional medicine! Our knowledge of psychiatric medicine has lagged behind physical medicine, mostly because the brain is so complex. ECT has improved the lives of people who are otherwise untreatable. However, the technique remains controversial. I feel it should never be used against a patient's will, but it should be available for seriously ill people who consent.

[drake10987]

when was this video made anyway? it looks really old. ECT has changed a lot since the 70s/80s...

[rokstarro4]

you can see around 3:20 that it's 2000 or later

[thebearer]

this was homework! i want a rabbit that does that involuntarily!

[skooshe]

ECT isn't so bad. It's just different. And they don't know exactly how it works. But that doesn't make it automatically a torture method. Just because it looks like "what the hell are they doing?!" doesn't mean it's wrong or doesn't work.

[skooshe]

Had ECT. It saved my life. I have no negative side effects. My memory is the same as it ever was. I just know what it feels like to be happy now. To actually be positive about life. To get up and be able to get things accomplished during the day. I was on meds for 26 years. They did nothing. And I don't have to take them anymore. And I'm able to feel happiness and joy.

[psychpatient101]

LOL- Sounds like you give Shock treatmants- Your comment sounds like a TV adverstisement. Pure BS.

[laekarn]

There is nothing to support that ECT causes brain damage, CT and MRI are unable to detect any lesions in humans and electron microscopy has failed to reveal anything in animals given as much as 10 consecutive shocks. ECT actually increases the number of neurons in the hippocampus area of the brain. The only time that ECT might be bad for you is if have a cerebral aneurysm, if you've had a recent infarction or another condition where you need to avoid a rise in blood pressure at any cost.

[markae0]

So laekarn, you are saying Dr John is not telling the truth?

"This CT scan (left) and MRI (right) of a VERY LARGE BLOOD CLOT from ECT can be found in: Weisberg, L. Elliott, D and Mielke, D: Intracerebral hemorrhage following electroconvulsive therapy. November 1991, Neurology V 41 p 1849"

So the photo isn't in the book.

[NuclearTube]

ECT is like banging the TV to get it to come on...not scientific, but I'm sure it's accidentally worked a few times. Certainly it disorientates people so much they can forget they are depressed for a brief while.

[drake10987]

"disorientates people so much they can forget they are depressed for a brief while." lol you're a moron.

[jerryaltman]

Mental institutions doctors hate sick patients, specially if they don't obain they. It's a pleasure to most doctor there to torture the patient with alectro-convulsive shock. The treatment relieve the depression of the doctor. Sure it hurts the patient and make irreversible damage, but the proud medical comunity don't give shit as long they get money.

[balthazar3000]

I think that's a little harsh, I know a few psychiatrists and they do whatever they can for their patients, but saying that a lot of drug companies sell dangerous pills without telling doctors and patients about the serious side-effects! All in all ECT isn't exactly humane but pills can be just as bad! I think today everyone will go to any lengths to make money and it's sick! I agree with you there!

[jerryaltman]

There are mental, institutions that are no bether than Auschwits. Psychiatrist works on those clinics... And even without talk about brain damage, there are other ways to hurt the patient, like destroying his critic intelect, self esteem, his individuality. Most psychiatrists or psychologist are mere social agent controls.

[jerryaltman]

Freud was very human, but the mental side of medicine it's still cruel and works to control society. If society it's mostly stupid and dumb, it's concidered normal be a dumb opressed manipulated. But whenb a person is above the sick society overal in intellectully-critic, it's coinsidered a problem. The doctor always says the problem is the person sit in front of hin.

[jerryaltman]

Maybe there are very few exceptions, but not a great exception. But never admit their mistakes and usually work or help to cover their crimes or fellow worker's crimes. I conclude most are just the same shit as most of ordinary people.

[NuclearTube]

All that seems a bit on the deep end. How do you know they are all sick sadists? That seems like a leap of faith to say without some kind of proof.

Modern ECT uses short pulses with anesthesia vs the older sine wave currents that had worse side effects.

[jerryaltman]

Isn't necesarilly to be a sadist to we say it's s darned shit. 1% or less of a sadic is enough to be a shite doctor. Eletroconvulsion is still bad itself and even bad prescribed.

[jerryaltman]

Electroconvulsve Therapy seens more like a Nazi Created Method. It was disgusting what they did to the rabbit and the cat; now imagine to human.

[metiswarrior1947]

thaNK YOU

[kurdtsnotdead]

Oh my god! Those poor animals!

...Why did they think that radiation would help mental illness? Thats ridiculous.

[solhersh]

thanx for posting

[ysimies]

I'm glad this was not at all biased ;)

[bezpomoshtnisalzi]

i went through ECT myself.i was 19.now im 21...

[brokenallthewaythu]

it needs to STOP.

[xzeroine]

Thanks for posting this