Electroconvulsive therapy has a long controversial history in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. In its heyday, it was used much more comonly for a wide range of difficulties. One person told me about being given ECT as punishment for being “incorragable” as a child in a way that appeared to be punishment for unruly behavior. Now, ECT is typically used only in the most severe cases of depression.

I have no doubt that ECT has some efficacy in the treatment of emotional disorders; however, to me the bigger issue is should it be used? Not everything that works is humane. Consider the case of the Russian substance abuse treatment program. People involved in the program were given two hundred lashes with a whip if they relapsed. Amazingly, this program had a 80% recovery rate. Something that is unheard of in the treatment of substance abuse problems. I read about this probably 8 years ago, and could not find any information about it today. So, they may have stopped the program.

 

I feel pretty certain, that if you were hit with a whip every time you had a negative thought, you’d probably stop having negative thoughts that lead to depression. Would that be humane? No way!! So does ECT differ from a severe punishment? Lets see. The people that I have seen who underwent ECT completely lost 6 months of their lives. In other words, they could not remember the last 6 months and were perpetually in a daze for several months after the treatment. That does not seem to be humane to me, and I have difficulty differentiating ECT from any other type of severe punishment.

I remember thinking increduously about the patients I have known who received ECT. They were so very depressed and desperate. Yet they were unwilling or unable to follow through with suggestions that would help them to make progress with their depression (increasing activity, exercising, healthy diet, etc…). It would have made more sense to me to have a family member take them to a gym and encourage them to exercise, or to even hire a personal trainer. I was not in charge of their treatment at the time they received ECT, so I was powerless to influence the process.

You can address some of the physical aspects of depression with exercise and diet (low energy, low motivation, apathy, and poor sleep). Once you get the ball rolling, you can begin to address the psychological aspects. In my opinion, if you are going to do something extreme, make it extremely positive or extremely beneficial. Don’t fry someone’s brain because it has been labeled a “medical treatment.”
The idea of self-harm is not displeasing to some who are severely depressed…thus the higher suicide rates. When someone volunteers for ECT, I would speculate about the desire for self-harm. In other words, this harmful treatment becomes a more compelling option if you are willing to harm yourself in other ways. A patient with such an extreme desire for a radical procedure should be given the option of trying something radically positive that will not damage their brain.

I know there are some out there that credit ECT with saving their lives. I have never met one of these people. In my experience, I’ve only seen harm come from ECT.