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The Return of Electroshock Therapy

One morning in early October, on her final day as the chair of the psychiatry and behavioral-sciences department at the Duke University School of Medicine, Sarah Hollingsworth Lisanby ushered me over to a display case in one of the department’s conference rooms. There, behind glass, sits the world’s only museum, such as it is, of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), or what most people still call “shock therapy.” The oldest artifacts on display, some of which are made of polished wood and brass, date to the late 19th century, when electrical stimulation was promoted as a cure for a host of ailments. A mid-20th-century relic labeled electro…

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Featured

 'Shock therapy' isn't as scary as its name—or the movies—suggest

Weighing the risks against the benefits is key.

 Can We All Benefit From Electric Shocks To Our Brains?

If you follow neuroscience and neuroengineering, it’s hard to ignore the offerings of cutting-edge research seeming to reanimate an antediluvian procedure of pelting the brain with electricity. Today’s more modern and civilized brain zapping is less invasive, more controlled and uses various levels of direct and alternating electrical currents to repair and augment a panoply of different cognitive functions. Results range from relieving severe, treatment-resistant depression, jumpstarting vocabulary recall, enhancing math skills, boosting self-control, fortifying the aging brain as well as reducing the intention to commit violent acts and sexual assault.

 My great-grandmother’s struggle with mental illness — and the therapy that saved her life

Electroconvulsive therapy can help people with severe depression. But it has a controversial past.

 New Thinking Challenges the Stigma Around ‘Shock Therapy’

Although memory loss remains a risk, doctors say electroconvulsive therapy can be an important tool for patients with severe depression.

 Why Haven’t We Found a Better Name for Electroconvulsive Therapy?

ECT doesn’t always work perfectly for everyone, but it can be a crucial tool for people whose illness has been resistant to medications and therapy, or who have been rendered so unable to care for themselves that other interventions may take catastrophically long to work.

Articles of Interest

Coming Out of Electroshock Therapy

Janalynne Rogers shares her experience with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), often called “shock treatment”—but it’s far less crude and risky than you might think...

Electroconvulsive therapy does work – and it can be miraculous

The real effect from ECT is even stronger than what has been claimed in trials. This is because it produces its best effect in the most severely ill patients: those who stop talking, stop eating or become psychotic.

Electroshock therapy is actually still in use—and could help treat PTSD

The treatment has changed a lot in the last few decades.

1940: Electroshock Therapy

“Insanity Treated By Electric Shock” read the headline of an article published on July 6, 1940, in The New York Times. The article described “a new method, introduced in Italy, of treating certain types of mental disorders by sending an electric shock through the brain.”

A Case for Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

My experience of my first ECT treatment can be described in one word: terror. As a social worker, I was aware of the procedure but still had visions of torture from watching movies and TV shows that depict ECT in a punishing way. All of my fear was combatted by the warmest nurses I have ever encountered. It was over before I even knew it. I awoke from the anesthesia and felt proud of myself for taking a risk.

Cured by Electroshock Therapy

Simon Winchester credits a treatment often thought barbaric with ending his mental illness.

Electric Brain Therapies Improve Their Aim

The goal is the same as with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), colloquially known as shock therapy; for unknown reasons, sparking electrical activity in the cortex relieves symptoms of depression. ECT, however, hits a larger swath of tissue and may cause memory loss and other bad side effects as the seizures spread through the brain. Researchers hope the more localized MST will one day replace ECT.

FDA Proposes Ban On Electric Shock Devices Used On Autistic Children

The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to ban the devices used at the center, the only place in the country known to use electrical shocks as aversive conditioning for aggressive students.

How Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Helped Me Survive to Battle Bipolar Depression

Ten years ago if you told me I’d beg a stranger to attach electrodes to my head to zap me out of despair, my retort would’ve been: No way!

How Electroshock Therapy Changed Me

Surgeon and author Sherwin Nuland discusses the development of electroshock therapy as a cure for severe, life-threatening depression — including his own. It’s a moving and heartfelt talk about relief, redemption and second chances.

How Shock Therapy Can Save Depressed Women's Lives

Although it's been stigmatized in pop culture, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can help treat serious depression when nothing else works. We spoke to three women who have undergone the treatment.

Hundreds of Mental Health Patients Given Forced Electroconvulsive Therapy

The use of non-consensual electroconvulsive therapy in New Zealand has more than tripled in two years. Why are so many more mental health patients being shocked without permission?

It’s time to move on from ECT’s shocking past

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has come a long way since earlier, darker days when it was known as electric shock therapy and conjured images from One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest. But just when it seems that ECT’s reputation is starting to recover, new criticisms are emerging.

Kitty Dukakis, a Beneficiary of Electroshock Therapy, Emerges as Its Evangelist

Electroconvulsive therapy is not a one-and-done procedure. Mrs. Dukakis, 80, still receives maintenance treatment every seven or eight weeks. She said that she had minor memory lapses but that the treatment had banished her demons and that she no longer drank, smoked or took antidepressants. She went public with her use of electroshock in 2006 in her book, “Shock: The Healing Power of Electroconvulsive Therapy,” which she wrote with the journalist Larry Tye.

The Truth about Shock Therapy

Electroconvulsive therapy is a reasonably safe solution for some severe mental illnesses.

Unwanted Memories Erased in Electroconvulsive Therapy Experiment

Scientists have zapped an electrical current to people's brains to erase distressing memories, part of an ambitious quest to better treat ailments such as mental trauma, psychiatric disorders and drug addiction.

Why I Got Electroconvulsive Therapy for My Autistic Son

How pop culture is holding back powerful medicine.

Resources

Mental Health America

After 60 years of use, ECT is still the most controversial psychiatric treatment. Much of the controversy surrounding ECT revolves around its effectiveness vs. the side effects, the objectivity of ECT experts, and the recent increase in ECT as a quick and easy solution, instead of long-term psychotherapy or hospitalization.

Mind

No-one is sure how ECT works, but it is known to change patterns of blood flow in the brain, and also change the way energy is used in parts of the brain that are thought to be involved in depression. It may cause changes in brain chemistry, although how these are related to symptoms is not understood.

National Institute of Mental Health

Electroconvulsive therapy is the best studied brain stimulation therapy and has the longest history of use. Other stimulation therapies discussed here are newer, and in some cases still experimental methods. These include: vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) magnetic seizure therapy (MST). deep brain stimulation (DBS)

Electroconvulsive therapy: A history of controversy, but also of help

Many critics have portrayed ECT as a form of medical abuse, and depictions in film and television are usually scary. Yet many psychiatrists, and more importantly, patients, consider it to be a safe and effective treatment for severe depression and bipolar disorder. Few medical treatments have such disparate images.

MayoClinic

ECT is much safer today. Although ECT still causes some side effects, it now uses electric currents given in a controlled setting to achieve the most benefit with the fewest possible risks.