Woman sets record for shock
treatment
By Jeremy Laurance
Healthy Correspondent
A WOMAN has undergone the longest continuous course of electric
shock treatment for depression.
Since 1989 the unnamed patient has received more than 430
treatments, in which a pulse of electricity is passed through her
brain, triggering convulsions. For the first four years she had
treatment twice a week but it was then cut to once a fortnight.
The regular shocks were effective in warding off her despair,
which was accompanied by feelings of guilt, and did not cause
progressive mental damage, as doctors had feared. The depression
returned when the shocks were administered less than once a
fortnight.
The woman had been treated for depression from the age of 43 with
regular stays in hospital. Before the course of treatment began she
had spent most of the previous five years in hospital. Since 1989,
she has lived in a residential home and has been virtually free of
symptoms. She is now 74, and understands fully the nature of her
treatment.
Electric shock treatment, also known as electro-convulsive
therapy, has a controversial history and was once described as
barbaric. Today it is widely accepted by psychiatrists as a
last-resort treatment for severe depression, although concern
remains about its long-term effect on intellectual function.
The case is described by David Anderson, consultant
psychogeriatrician at Rathbone Hospital, Liverpool, in the Journal
of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
top
home | about
me | studies & statistics
| media | official
statements | news
sex, lies, & eegs | brain
| misc. | ect
bulletin board |
| send to
friend
|
