Brain Electric Shock Therapy

Electroconvulsive therapy ect ect is a procedure where controlled electric currents are passed through the brain while the person is under general anesthesia.

Brain electric shock therapy.

The label shock therapy encompasses therapies that are actually quite different from each other. As far as we know the ancient greeks were the first ones to experiment with shock therapy. With ect an electric current is briefly applied through the scalp to the brain inducing a seizure. Brain stimulation therapies involve activating or touching the brain directly with electricity magnets or implants to treat depression and other disorders.

Shock therapy s effect on depression discovered researchers say the huffington post news headline posted march 20 2012 declared shock therapy s effect on depressed brain explained by new electroconvulsive therapy study time healthland s article was titled how electroconvulsive therapy works for. Brain stimulation therapies involve stimulating or touching the brain directly with electricity magnets or implants. The bloomberg news headline crowed. Electroconvulsive therapy is the most researched stimulation therapy and has the longest history of use.

Other stimulation therapies discussed here vagus nerve stimulation repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation magnetic seizure. Electroconvulsive therapy or ect for short is a treatment that involves sending an electric current through your brain causing a brief surge of electrical activity within your brain also known as a seizure. Electroconvulsive therapy ect is a procedure done under general anesthesia in which small electric currents are passed through the brain intentionally triggering a brief seizure. Typically 70 to 120 volts are applied externally to the patient s head resulting in approximately 800 milliamperes of direct current passed through the.

The aim of the treatment is to relieve the symptoms of some mental health problems. You might also hear them referred to as brain zaps brain shocks brain flips or brain shivers they re often described as feeling like brief electric jolts to the head. Electroconvulsive therapy ect formerly known as electroshock therapy is a psychiatric treatment in which seizures in the brain without muscular convulsions are electrically induced in patients to provide relief from mental disorders. We are talking about a stimulus that is capable of producing changes in a person s brain.

Ect seems to cause changes in brain chemistry that can quickly reverse symptoms of certain mental health conditions. Shock therapy is now known as electroconvulsive therapy or ect. The brain is still not well understood nor is the reason for the treatment effects.