====== Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) ======

//Electroconvulsive therapy// (ECT), formerly known as //electroshock therapy//, is a psychiatric treatment in which strong seizures are electrically induced in patients, After treatment, by an unknown mechanism, it provides relief from some severe mental disorders - especially [[content:psychology:disorders:depression]], catatonia, etc.

The therapy has been in use since 1938, and although it can provide long term relief (typically several months) in about half of patients treated, the side effects (memory loss, cognitive impairment) can be very severe - and in some cases permanent.

>//"Despite decades of research, the exact mechanism of action of ECT remains elusive.// Neuroimaging studies in people who have had ECT, investigating differences between responders and nonresponders, and people who relapse, find that responders have anticonvulsant effects mostly in the frontal lobes, which corresponds to immediate responses, and neurotrophic effects primarily in the medial temporal lobe." \\ \\ Source : [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroconvulsive_therapy#Mechanism_of_action|Wikipedia]]

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Also see : [[content:medicine:treatments:ces]]