Electroshock Therapy

            Electroshock Therapy Electroshock therapy what is it? How does it work? What is it used for and what comes from it? This paper will answer all of these questions and will also try to prove that electroshock therapy is useful and not as bad as it appears to be. Electroshock therapy is an old process of ridding schizophrenia, and depression, and suicidal tendencies. It is used when people with major depression are taking too many anti depressant drugs, cant take the side-effects of their medication, or they are taking too many drugs and anti-depressant drugs are too risky to take. It is also used to irradiate certain cases of schizophrenia and is being studied to treat dementia. (Mental Illness Assessment and Treatment p.78). Convulsive therapy using drugs rather than electricity was introduced in 1934 by Hungarian neuropsychiatrist Ladisles meduna , who speculated that seizures (similar to the ones occurring in epilepsy) could probably alleviate mental disorders. He based his theory on the belief that epileptic seizures prevented the symptoms of schizophrenia. Although this was a good theory, the drugs administered to the patients to induce these seizures was too risky to the patients lives. In 1937 psychiatrists started using electric shocks to induce seizures. In 1939 ECT was in wide use in the United States. In those days ECT was unrefined and resulted in many complications and was terribly abused. Today ECT is more refined, safe, and effective (Mental Illness Assessment and Treatment p.78). How does it work? Electroshock therapy or ECT involves exposing the brain to carefully controlled pulses of electric current that induce brief seizures. The reason why electroshock therapy relieves depression is still unknown. Researchers believe that Electroshock therapy alters monoamine function, as do the anti-depressant drugs. The process of inducing seizures through electroshock is not as complicated or as dangerous as people think.