Electroconvulsive therapy

What is the electroconvulsive theory

Electroconvulsive therapy is usually used to treat severe depressions. During Ect, electric current briefly through the skin of the skull to the brain, causing convulsions.

Why is the electroconvulsive therapy used?

It is a method to relieve symptoms in patients with severe depression and suicidal tendencies, or patients suffering from manic or other mental illnesses.

How is electroshock therapy performed?

Before the treatment with it, the patient is administered to sleep using general anesthesia, and a muscle relaxant is also given. Electrodes are put on the patient's head and an exactly controlled electric current is applied, which causes a short convulsion in the brain.

Since the muscles are relaxed, the cramp is usually limited to a slight twitching of the arms and legs. During the treatment, patients are carefully monitored, who wake up in a few minutes, while they do not remember the treatment and events surrounding it. Often patients are confused, but this condition usually does not last long. It is usually applied up to three times a week for two to four weeks.

After the course of it, psychotherapy is usually conducted and medications are administered under the supervision of a psychiatrist.

 This method of therapy is cardinal, and it, of course, has side effects, which are early and late. In the first case, violations occur immediately after the end of the session or during the session. This includes unnaturally prolonged seizure, which requires immediate interruption of the process by the introduction of special drugs. Also, during the session, tachycardia may appear. In addition, the reaction may occur on anesthesia or another drug that is used for therapy. It manifests itself in the form of apnea (respiratory arrest). 

In addition, the early consequences include headaches after the procedure, which can be eliminated with the help of light painkillers. After the seizure, overexcitement, nausea, a change in pressure, a painful condition, and confusion may gradually appear, which gradually fade away. But they can intensify with each session. The most terrible consequences include a heart attack and death. Later side effects appear after a time after several procedures. They can grow throughout the course while it is performed. Consequences, as already mentioned, can manifest themselves in the form of a long confusion of consciousness. It can also be partial amnesia or problems with thinking. 

Memory breakdown:

 For a long time, there was an opinion that this procedure inevitably damages the brain. it is conducted to find out what memory is erased during it, and what disorders occur in this case. It was found that the disturbances begin to manifest after about the sixth session. In this case, amnesia can have a different character. Sometimes the patient simply did not remember that he was being treated with this method, and in other cases, selective memory loss was noted. For example, a person was not able to remember names or other details. But all these violations occurred only with those patients who, before the start of therapy on MRI, foci of excessive intensity were fixed in the subcortical white matter. Usually, after a few weeks, the memory of these patients was restored completely, although some still noted that part of the events of their lives had been irretrievably irretrievable.