What are the advantages and disadvantages of electroconvulsive therapy for depression?
Electroconvulsive therapy for depression (ECT) can provide an immediate improvement in symptoms, which is advantageous for patients who cannot take certain drugs. This therapy can help people who are seriously depressing and suicide, and patients do not respond to other treatment. Electroconvulsive therapy for depression can cause memory to return memory for several weeks or years. Confusion is another common side effect of shock therapy that can take several days. If the patient is so seriously depressing that he loses contact with reality, shock treatment can help. Without treatment, a depressed person could enter a psychotic condition. It is used in pregnant women who risk damage to the unborn child if certified by drugs are used. This form of treatment can also be effective in older patients who are unable to tolerate drugs used to treat serious depression. Some patients suffered broken bones during seizures produced by electric shock. Others lost a large part of their memory after treatment shockU. Modern techniques use general anesthesia, with ECT served in controlled environments.
The 15 -minute procedure occurs while the patient is unconscious and the muscles are released. The electrodes are located on one or both sides of the head before the seizure is 30 to 60 seconds. Doctors do not understand how the spark of brain activity treats depression, but believes that they are changing chemical functioning. Treatment usually takes three times for about a month. Some patients see immediate improvement in depression, while others begin to improve after two or three sessions.
In addition to depression, ECT can produce the results of severe mania. Sometimes it works in patients in increased condition of hyperactivity or euphoria as a symptom of bipolar disorder, which may lead to risky behavior, drug abuse and psychosis. Shock therapy can also help treat schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive Porachy, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.
during electroconvulsive therapy for depression, heart rate and blood pressure. It can cause serious heart problems in patients with an existing heart disease. Some patients wake up from ECT in a state of confusion, unable to find out where they are or what happened. This side effect usually disappears within hours, but may last days, especially in older patients.
Retrograde amnesia may occur in some patients. They may be unable to remember what happened before ECT treatment. This loss of memory could return the days, weeks or months. Nausea, vomiting and muscle pain are other side effects of shock therapy.