A Video Overview of Electroconvulsve Therapy

ECT isn't new and it isn't effective. It causes brain damage manifested mostly by amnesia. This video is a brief overview from my perspective as a neurologist.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• ECT
• electroconvulsive
• psychiatry

[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.

[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.

[koochy79]

@MassDeportation And you have experience in this matter?

[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..

[sriwai1]

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

[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...