Electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), also known as electroshock, is a controversial psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Today, ECT is most often used as a treatment for severe major depression which has not responded to other treatment, and is also used in the treatment of mania, catatonia, schizophrenia and other disorders. It first gained widespread use as a form of treatment in the 1940s and 50s; today, an estimated 1 million people worldwide receive ECT every year,[1] usually in a course of 6-12 treatments administered 2 or 3 times a week
In the US the Surgeon General's report on mental health summarised current psychiatric opinion about the effectiveness of ECT. It stated that both clinical experience and controlled trials had determined ECT to be effective (with an average 60 to 70 percent response rate) in the treatment of severe depression, some acute psychotic states, and mania.
Its effectiveness had not been demonstrated in dysthymia, substance abuse, anxiety, or personality disorder