|
Anaesthesia => Psychiatry => Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), technique for treating psychiatric patients, in which seizures similar to those of epilepsy are induced by passing a current of electricity through the forehead. ECT produces dramatic improvements in many psychiatric symptoms, especially depression, and is often used to prevent patients from committing suicide. Initially tried in the late 1930s, ECT was the first form of therapy that reliably reduced severe depression. Until the introduction of the major antipsychotic drugs in the 1950s, ECT was used widely; it then fell into a decline. Recently, however, practitioners are again using the technique more frequently, largely because undesirable side effects accompany long-term use of psychotropic medications.
When ECT was first used, patients frequently suffered fractures while having convulsions, but muscle relaxant drugs are now routinely used to prevent such fractures. Patients are also anaesthetized, and they feel no shock. Another modern practice involves applying the electric current only to the nondominant side of the brain, thus reducing the loss of memory, which is the most troubling side effect of ECT. Unilateral ECT is, however, less effective than bilateral ECT.
Because of the memory loss and the inherently unappealing nature of ECT, it has been among the most controversial treatments in psychiatry. It is effective in relieving severe depression, and therefore its use has continued.
Back
|
