ECT

This is the first time I have seen how ECT (Electro-convulsive therapy) is conducted. Anesthetized patients are basically receiving electrical shocks for therapeutic effect.How those electrical shocks work and how they help is very elusive. However, some patients benefit from it so it is practiced as a treatment of last resort. Mostly patients with severe depression are treated with ECT if medication doesn't show any effect. But those patients have not been treated with psychotherapy so I wonder if that would be another type of treatment that should come before ECT.

Anyway, this experience for me was pretty scary. I have heard some patients ask for ECT because they strongly believe in it and think that this is the only thing that helps them. But I have also heard patients crying, screaming and being totally terrified right before receiving ECT. The procedure itself, I was told, is totally unspectacular. Anesthetized patients barely show any reaction to the electrical shocks. The experience I have made was a bit different. In the morning when I met the patient, he seemed to be totally indifferent about receiving ECT, at least this is how it appeared. After being put to sleep, he received one electrical shock. Right after the first shock, his entire body started shivering for at least 30 seconds. The doctor and attendant had to even hold the patient. This is when it was over for me. In this small, scary, hot, stuffed room I was unable to breath and really scared I would pass out  so I left.

I truly believe that ECT works for some patients and some might truly benefit from it but since the percentage of those people is very small, I am wondering if it is justifiable to put a lot of other patients through it who it is not working for.