Electroshock Therapy

Electroshock therapy, also known as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), is a type of treatment for mental illnesses. The treatment consists of electrical shocks inserted into the brain of a patient, which takes place when a patient is anesthetized.

Sometime in 1939, electroshock therapy was birthed into the United States. By 1998, America had 100,000 electroshock treatments administered to patients. Electroshock therapy is not the type of treatment that is forced on any individual. It is completely up to the patient to perform ECT. It has been around for 70 years, but for the past 20 years, ECT has been most popular as a form of treatment for a person's mental health. Electroshock therapy is effective in curing severe states of depression, psychiatric states, mania, and schizophrenia.

Statistics show that electroshock therapy has approximately a 30 percent chance of treating depression more successfully than medications. By using electroshock therapy, a patient can be brought back to their normal state of mind from severe depression in less than three weeks. Electroshock therapy is proven to be a safe form of treatment for depression, which was reported in 1990 from the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

Electroshock therapy does have some side effects. Side effects include memory loss, which is the most common side effect. It is hard to both recall what happened in the past and absorb new information.
Other side effects include muscle pain, headaches and nausea. Overall, ECT is good for a person's mental health, which restores the health of people with different types of mental illnesses.