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Electroshock therapy was also a common treatment for mental illness. My grandma received it several times...to try to deal with her emotions about my abusive a
by smeej 3y ago
Electroshock therapy was also a common treatment for mental illness.
My grandma received it several times...to try to deal with her emotions about my abusive alcoholic grandfather.
For as much as older generations criticize Millennials and Gen Z for being "snowflakes," I'm not sure my grandma's "Greatest Generation" actually handled things better.
- bowsamic 3y agoElectroshock therapy is still common in some places, such as Australia
- defrost 3y agoFWiW modern ECT is much much milder than 1960s light dimming electroshock treatments. https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/electroconvulsive-therapy-ect https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/electroconvulsive-therapy-ec...
- funnym0nk3y 3y agoIt's still highly controversial. Effects don't last that long (long enough though to get someone out of debilitating depression or mania and time for proper treatment) and need repeated courses to sustain. There are still issues with memory, where one looses maybe a few days, but also could loose years.
- coolvision 3y agonovadays it's done with general anesthesia and muscle relaxants, so it is quite different from what people know from the movies. good ted talk about it: https://www.ted.com/talks/sherwin_nuland_how_electroshock_therapy_changed_me https://www.ted.com/talks/sherwin_nuland_how_electroshock_th...
- jmbwell 3y agoThey call it electro-convulsive therapy now, or just ECT. The objective is to induce a seizure. The idea is that electrical activity in the brain has been observed to be more stable following a seizure. ECT is still applied and apparently there are documented improvements. It’s not generally done like in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The pulses, voltages, and currents are apparently small and precise. More recently, “transcranial magnetic stimulation” has been reported similarly effective and seems to be considered something of an evolution beyond ECT, using magnetic fields instead of electric current, and avoiding the need for sedation etc. I don’t fully understand it all, and I gather there are still a lot of questions about the exact mechanism. The research done so far is said to support some beneficial outcomes in hard-to-treat cases. As with so many mental health issues, however, doing rigorous double blind studies for example is difficult or impossible. Anyway, better practice is no longer to just strap people in and shock people in the brain.
- smeej 3y agoMy grandma was born in the 1920s. Hers very much was the old-school electroshock therapy.