10 Video’s on Electroconvulsive Therapy
The most recent hands on experience with ECT and it’s side-effects. There is an excellent lecture by a doctor who has had electroconvulsive therapy: Sherwin Nuland, the surgeon and author, talks about the development of electroshock therapy as a cure for severe, life-threatening depression. Midway through, his story turns personal. It’s a moving and deeply felt talk about relief, redemption, second chances
You can view another 9 video’s on ECT in a recent post. All video’s were selected by the author of this blog because he finds them to be genuine and true.
This blog also has a post about 11 websites and blogs with trustworthy information about ECT.
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January 28, 2009 @ 6:35 am
Amazing how well much the ECT has changed her mental illness, I was especially impressed with the description (from dark night to cloudy day). It is also very cool that she is no longer having to take her antipsychotics anymore and is able to lose the weight.
February 10, 2011 @ 10:18 pm
Getting off the meds is probably what has helped, NOT the fact she had ECT. ECT is a closed head injury. Punch drunk for 4 weeks. Damages your brain and especially insight into the damage.
August 26, 2011 @ 11:07 pm
No, Cheryl, “getting off the meds” probably DID NOT HELP. Please don’t give people bad and unsupported quack advice. It’s very likely ECT DID HELP, as it has been shown to be highly efficacious.
August 28, 2011 @ 10:35 pm
ECT has not been shown to be efficacious. Studies show it gives temporary (4 weeks) euphoria/apathy which wears off and the person finds they still have depression plus brain damage on top.
March 9, 2012 @ 9:48 pm
Actually, ECT can help with depression and some other mental illnesses. It is only temporary, but it still lasts a long time. It’s only meant for severe cases. Just because it has caused brain damage doesn’t mean that it always does. ECT has proven to work about 80% of the time. I’m researching it now for my psychology class. The memory loss goes away most of the time, within a month. Cheryl, please don’t misinform the community about something you haven’t even tried to research.
May 19, 2017 @ 5:13 pm
Xero….why do you assume love that Cheryl hasn’t “even tried to research” ECT?
October 16, 2022 @ 10:02 pm
My mother, now deceased, had both the old-fashioned shock treatments and the new. I was about seven when she had the old shocks. I remember it clearly. She would come home from the hospital appearing to be stunned, ruined, and bruised where they held her down while she convulsed. This hurt me terribly. I was able to come up with a good idea as to what it was like for her, gleaning much from osmosis. I later saw a film of it, and I wasn’t far from the mark. I don’t know why they used such high voltage. Why? Why didn’t they start out slowly? From my seven years old point of view, it did more harm than good.
She went for maybe thirty years without any shock treatments. They treated her with medicine. She was on heavy doses of psyche drugs. Much to my disappointment she was never healed of her illness called schizoaffective disorder.
When we moved her from an apartment to an assisted living facility she went into a deep depression. Her visage could have been used as an illustration in a textbook of depression. Though they tried they couldn’t lift her out of it. A nurse suggested she try ECT assuring us it was different from the ECT from years before. We gave my mother this information and let her make her own decision. She decided to try it. She had to be moved to a hospital who performed the procedure. I didn’t like that hospital; the atmosphere was full of doped up illness. She was not allowed to take a nap. She was forced to sit in a common room when awake. They gave her the shocks in timed increments. My mother said she didn’t want to do it anymore before she completed the procedure. We brought her back to the assisted living facility without hope that she would come out of the depression. But she did! She was back to her old self!
This is my experience with shock treatments—the good and the bad of it.
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