Is electro shock therapy still used today?

But electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is still being used — more in Europe than the United States — and it may be the most effective short-term treatment for some patients with depressive symptoms, a newly published review in the journal The Lancet suggests.

Why would electroconvulsive shock therapy be used today?

Why it’s done. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can provide rapid, significant improvements in severe symptoms of several mental health conditions. ECT is used to treat: Severe depression, particularly when accompanied by detachment from reality (psychosis), a desire to commit suicide or refusal to eat.

What countries still use electroconvulsive therapy?

On one end of the spectrum is Slovakia where the majority of psychiatric facilities offer ECT, on the other end is Slovenia, where ECT is banned. In about half of the countries schizophrenia is the main indication for ECT. In Ukraine, unmodified ECT is still in use.

How is ECT done today?

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a medical treatment most commonly used in patients with severe major depression or bipolar disorder that has not responded to other treatments. ECT involves a brief electrical stimulation of the brain while the patient is under anesthesia.

Is shock therapy legal in the US?

It is legal in the United States, though it’s illegal to give it to patients younger than 16 in Texas and Colorado. In some cases, with the permission of courts, doctors can force very sick patients to get ECT. One of the more serious side effects of ECT is memory loss.

Is ECT still used in Canada?

Despite protests calling for a ban on the treatment, electroshock therapy is frequently used by Canadian psychiatrists to treat severe depression.

Is electroshock therapy still used in Canada?

Is ECT used in Europe?

ECT is widely used worldwide in the treatment of schizophrenia, but in North America and Western Europe it is invariably used only in treatment resistant schizophrenia when symptoms show little response to antipsychotics; there is comprehensive research evidence for such practice.

When did ECT stop?

Although the use of ECT on consenting patients fell by over a half between 1986 and 2002, its use on non-consenting patients remained constant at just over 2,000 people a year (in England and Wales).