Electroconvulsive Therapy: Difference between revisions

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Often, when people think of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) they think of the process depicted in the film ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. A lone patient with electrodes attached to their head convulsing in pain...'' This was an over dramatisation, the modern process is far from what was depicted. Since its introduction in the 1930's, various changes to pulse width, dosing and duration, electrode placement and anaesthesia have made the treatment almost unrecognisable<ref>'''Electroconvulsive therapy: a selected review'''. ''Am J Geriatr Psychiatry''. Greenberg RM, Kellner CH.  2005;13(4):268–81.</ref>.
Often, when people think of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) they think of the process depicted in the film ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. A lone patient with electrodes attached to their head convulsing in pain...'' This was an over dramatisation, the modern process is far from what was depicted. Since its introduction in the 1930's, various changes to pulse width, dosing and duration, electrode placement and anaesthesia have made the treatment almost unrecognisable<ref>'''Electroconvulsive therapy: a selected review'''. ''Am J Geriatr Psychiatry''. Greenberg RM, Kellner CH.  2005;13(4):268–81.</ref>.
 
==== Use in Healthy Patients ====
In otherwise healthy patients with intellectual disability, a retrospective chart review performed at Cambridge university has shown that 79% showed a positive outcome following ECT<ref>https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-psychiatrist/article/use-of-ect-in-patients-with-an-intellectual-disability-review/B2CD9151E5A2B9462BD80175E63A9CB0</ref>.

Revision as of 00:36, 29 November 2022

Often, when people think of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) they think of the process depicted in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. A lone patient with electrodes attached to their head convulsing in pain... This was an over dramatisation, the modern process is far from what was depicted. Since its introduction in the 1930's, various changes to pulse width, dosing and duration, electrode placement and anaesthesia have made the treatment almost unrecognisable[1].

Use in Healthy Patients

In otherwise healthy patients with intellectual disability, a retrospective chart review performed at Cambridge university has shown that 79% showed a positive outcome following ECT[2].

  1. Electroconvulsive therapy: a selected review. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. Greenberg RM, Kellner CH. 2005;13(4):268–81.
  2. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-psychiatrist/article/use-of-ect-in-patients-with-an-intellectual-disability-review/B2CD9151E5A2B9462BD80175E63A9CB0

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