Electroconvulsive Therapy, a procedure in which electric currents are passed through the brain, intentionally triggering a brief seizure, can provide relief from psychiatric illnesses such as major depression and dysthymia. Currently in the U.S., depression and dysthymia is becoming a serious problem for teenagers today. According to Teen Help, “about 20 percent of teens will experience teen depression before they reach adulthood.”(Teen Help) Treatment of adolescents with clinical depression is difficult, involving pharmacologic, psychotherapeutic, educational, and family interventions. Medication has a limited role because of its lack of efficacy, its minimal effect on etiologic factors, and the frequent noncompliance of adolescents. Treatment with ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy) is proven, based on positive clinical studies, to treat depression effectively. ECT ultimately heals the illness quickly with only 3 treatments a week for one month. Unlike medications, which only begin treating after a year. Physicians should promote strong therapeutic treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy. The lack of attention of depression has become worse throughout the years in America. Because of its positive rating of treatment, Electroconvulsive therapy can treat adolescents with depression and dysthymia.
In contrast to the treatment of depression in adults, medication has a limited role for treating adolescent depression. ECT can heal depression in approximately one month according to scientific research “there is considerable variability in the trajectories, but most commonly there is progressive symptomatic improvement within the first week and complete remission within 3 to 4 week.”(Avery) Adolescents are likely to be noncomplian...
... middle of paper ...
...n. “Electroconvulsive Therapy in Children and Adolescents: Brief Overview and Ethical Issues” American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. AACAP Ethics Committee, 1 January. 2012. Print. 20 April. 2014.
Sackeim, H. A., Prudic, J., Devanand, D. P., Kiersky, J. E., Fitzsimons, L., Moody, B. J., ... & Settembrino, J. M. (1993). “Effects of stimulus intensity and electrode placement on the efficacy and cognitive effects of electroconvulsive therapy.” New England Journal of Medicine, 328(12), 839-846.
Shorter, E. (2009). History of Electroconvulsive Therapy. Electroconvulsive and Neuromodulation Therapies. Cambridge Univ. Press, New York, 167-79.
Zhang, Zhang-Jin. “Electroconvulsive Therapy Improves Antipsychotic and Somnographic Responses In Adolescents With First-Episode Psychosis—A Case–Control Study." Schizophrenia research 6 March. 2011. Web. 10 April. 2014.
Unlike Naomi, Eric does not respond to drug therapy. Therefore, instead of a drug therapy, Eric receives the electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) or brain stimulation often an effective treatment for patients like Eric with severe depression who does not respond to a drug therapy. By shocking the brain, the ECT manipulates the brain’s chemical imbalance produced by the social-cultural stress experience. But after eleven ECTs in a month, Eric cannot function because of the temporary side effects of memory loss and confusion affecting his concentration to play the viola and his well-being. Then after four months of receiving ECT treatment, Eric returns to normal social functioning as a musician. Six months later, Eric is still playing the viola and has had no recurrence of his
Electroconvulsive therapy, also known as ECT, is a medical procedure that is used in the treatment of mental illness. In ECT, a small electrical impulse is sent through the brain, resulting in an ephemeral seizure. Though the process is generally effective, modern science is unaware of the explanation behind ECT's success. Its history is filled with a large amount of stigma and the use of ECT as a therapy is still debated today. ECT has evolved to a point where its beneficial effects can be maximized and its adverse effects can be minimized through proper administration.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a treatment for severe mental illness in which the brain is stimulated with a strong electrical current which induces a seizure. The seizure rearranges the brain's neurochemistry and results in an elevation of mood. This essay asks: Is ECT any safer and more effective in treating mood disorders than drug therapies? This treatment has a controversial history ever since it was first introduced in 1938. I intend to argue that electroconvulsive therapy is indeed a safe treatment of mental disorders when other treatments have failed. Due to the development of safer and less traumatic ways of administering ECT, the treatment has made a comeback, is greatly used, and proves to be effective.
?What is the role of ECT in the treatment of mania?? Harvard Mental Health Letter. June 1997.
Currently, there is a lack of studies in regards to whether or not this therapy causes significant damage to the brain. Correspondingly, there is little research done in regards to how great relapse rates are and how long the treatment can truly last. Consequently, many people have abstained from receiving treatment to avoid any possibility of impairment or reversion. However, it has not been denied nor confirmed that ECT directly causes the aforementioned results. Moreover, many theories created to downplay electroconvulsive therapy’s effectiveness are being brought back into the spotlight, including one that attributes ECT’s success to brain damage. Breggin states, “More recently [Harold] Sackeim and Sackeim with a team of colleagues have covertly revived the principle that a therapeutic response depends upon the degree of brain damage and dysfunction” (par. 17). Although this theory was made to discredit ECT, there has been no research done to disprove its accuracy. Furthermore, because of a lack of research, when a new study such as this comes out, many people believe it right away no matter how erroneous it may actually be. More research on ECT is desperately needed to see if these theories are factual or not. As a result of these truths or fallacies, the therapy can be improved upon
An individual who has a mental illness can be a danger to themselves and others. They don't live a normal life that is guaranteed to them, holding them back from being successful and having a bright future. If medications are not working for a mental illness, then the patient can consider electroconvulsive therapy. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a medical procedure that sends currents of electricity through your brain. ECT saves lives and is ethical to treat patients using “psychosurgical” procedure.
However out of all the medication listed for most mental disorders, electroconvulsive therapy, has the most positive effect for cotard syndrome. It is commonly known as electroshock treatment. The patients are electronically given seizures to give the relief from their psychiatric illnesses. Women are more likely to go under electroshock treat, seeing as they are more likely to go into depression. Electroshock treatment is usually given as a last result for most major depression disorders, like cotard syndrome.
Several strides have been made in the medical field in regards to electroconvulsive therapy. The treatment is defined as “a medical procedure in which a brief electrical stimulus is used to induce a cerebral seizure under controlled conditions” (Enns, Reiss & Chan, 2010). It is used for a handful of mental illnesses, such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, but when it was introduced in 1938 by Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bin, its main use was to treat schizophrenia (Enns, Reiss & Chan, 2010). ECT can indeed be effective for schizophrenia, but the best results are when the “… duration of [the] illness is relatively brief or when catatonic or affective symptoms are prominent” (Enns, Reiss & Chan, 2010). Unlike schizophrenia, the best results from ECT have come from treatments with patients who have been diagnosed with major depressive disorder and alternative methods are no longer working...
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent and uncertain intrusions of normal brain function, called epileptic seizure (Fisher et al., 2005). The word epilepsy was derived from the Greek word “attack”. The primitive Greeks thought epilepsy was contagious, and hence people with epilepsy used to live alone (Dam, 2003). It is one of the oldest conditions known to humankind (WHO, 2001a) and still the most common neurological condition affecting individuals of all ages. At any given time, it is appraise that 50 million individuals worldwide have a detection of epilepsy (WHO, 2001b). Epilepsy is charaterised by the incident of at least two unprovoked events of recurrent disruption in neurological function. Epilepsy is not a single prognosis but is a symptom with many fundamental causes. (Nunes et al., 2012).
...be ineffective. In this treatment, electrodes are taped to your head. Then, while you're anesthetized and after you've received a muscle relaxant, a small amount of electrical current is passed through your brain for less than a second. This current produces a brain seizure, but because of the muscle relaxant your body remains calm. ECT profoundly affects brain metabolism and blood flow to various areas of the brain. But how that correlates to easing depression remains unknown. ECT works quickly usually showing a response after several treatments, generally within the first week and significantly lowers the risks of untreated depression, including suicide.
More interesting than the seizures and epilepsy itself, are the effects that it has on the brain and the emotional side effects from continuous seizures and the medication that is given to maintain stabilization in the brain. In high school a friend of mine hung herself; she was diagnosed with epilepsy after her second seiz...
The diagnosis of epilepsy is usually made after the patient experiences a second unprovoked seizure (Leppik, 2002). Diagnosis is often difficult, however, since it is unlikely that the physician will actually see the patient experience and epileptic seizure, and therefore must rely heavily on patient’s history. An electroencephalography (EEG) is often used to examine the patient’s brain waves, and some forms of epilepsy can be revealed by a characteristic disturbance in electrical frequency (Bassick, 1993). The variations in frequency can take form as spikes or sharp waves (Fisher, 1995). The variations are divided into two groups, ictal electrograph abnormalities, which are disturbances resulting from seizure activity, and interictal electrograph abnormalities, or disturbances between seizures. The EEG can also give clues as to which region of the brain the disturbances arise from. Interictal temporal spikes will predict the side of seizure origin in 95% of patients if three times as ...
Payne, N.A. and Prudic, J. (2009) Electroconvulsive Therapy Part I : A Perspective on the Evolution and Current Practice of ECT Journal of Psychiatric Practice 15(5) pp.346-368
Stefan Remy et Nelson Spruston. (2007). Dendritic spikes induce single-burst long-term potentiation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 104 (43), 17192-17197.