Electroconvulsive Therapy

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.