electroshock therapy

[i′lek·trō‚shäk ′ther·ə·pē]

(medicine)

Treatment of mental patients by passing an electric current of 85-110 volts through the brain.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Electroshock Therapy

(also electric shock, or electroconvulsive, therapy), a treatment for mental illness by which convulsions are produced by electrical irritation of the brain. Electroshock therapy was introduced in 1938 by the Italian physicians U. Cerletti and L. Bini as a variation of shock treatment. The procedure involves the use of a special apparatus that permits regulation of the voltage (from 60 to 120 volts) and duration (in tenths of a second) of an electric current sent through the brain by means of electrodes attached to the head. The electric current produces a convulsion, after which the patient often falls asleep.

It is not fully understood how electroshock therapy works. It has been theorized that it is similar to stress. Therapy is carried out daily or every second or third day. In connection with the growth of psychopharmacology, electroshock therapy is rarely used, mainly in the treatment of prolonged depressions for which psychotropic drugs are ineffective. Relaxants are used to avoid complications, for example, bone fractures or dislocations.

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References in periodicals archive

It was also a time when legitimate physicians were engaged in dealing with the agonies of depression by the use of electroshock therapy.

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Electroshock therapy - Patients as young as 16 were given ECT from 2016-18, despite studies showing it can cause brain damage

Mum left with brain damage and memory loss after being given electric shock therapy; EXCLUSIVE: Jacqueline Dunn was in hospital for months and had four bouts of electro-convulsive therapy when she was 17

Well-known Tough Mudder obstacles to feature in the UAE version include the Arctic Enema 2.0, an icy water plunge; the Block-Ness Monster, a challenge where participants have to climb several rotating slippery blocks in knee-high water; and the Electroshock Therapy, a sprint through a mud-filled course filled with live electric wires dangling that will give racers a shock.

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Its preparations sound unremarkable, but the thought of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), also known as electroshock therapy, tends to stir visceral horror in the average person.

Taking the shock out of electroshock therapy

The neuroscientists hoped to disrupt this reconsolidation process by using ECT, also known as electroshock therapy.

'Shock therapy' may help erase unpleasant memories

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This fact and the electroshock therapy (aimed to "cure" her of her lesbianism) are two of the main factors contributing to her mother's despair.

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Charlie's story had it all, a Cain and Abel type relationship, inter-racial adoption, sports notoriety, marital violence, electroshock therapy and tough battle to stay physically and spiritually alive.

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So while Lewis' legitimate other son (played by Oliver Platt) gets the bright lights and plush existence, Evans is raised in a run-down wooden hut under a rickety Lancashire roller-coaster with Freddie 'Parrot Face' Davies - in between a spell inside for manslaughter and bouts of electroshock therapy.

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Research using modern imaging studies a few years ago found that the area functions differently - it becomes overactive - in people who are chronically depressed and have tried everything from medication to electroshock therapy.

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In a scathing attack on what he termed as our clapped-out psychiatric hospitals, he said: "There's an OAP every working day in this country forced to have electroshock therapy.

The OAP therapy treatment that's shocking nation; CAMPAIGNER SLAMS 'ABUSE'