How does Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT in case I phrased that wrong) work?

When in the Psych Ward, I heard from most of the patients who got it that it was like hitting control alt delete for the brain. Just a nice little, and much needed, restart.

@King_Pariah That’s a heck of an interesting thought.

@Adirondackwannabe Great question. I have wondered the same. My guess is it’s part what @King_Pariah suggests and a great deal aversion therapy; because it hurts like Hell and the patient is likely to avoid acting out on impulses in order to avoid the punishment.

@ETpro I think you might be mixing up ECT with EST. Not one person I met ever said ECT was painful, I’ve heard uncomfortable to weird to being on a vibrating bed but painful was never what it was described as.

No one knows… but if the patients are correctly selected it does seem to work.

@King_Pariah ECT can hurt like hell. Nowadays it is usually only done on anaesthetised patients.

Thanks, @Lightlyseared.

@King_Pariah This is what Wikipedia says about it. “Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), formerly known as electroshock, is a psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Its mode of action is unknown.”

Usually you are put under before ECT. It does create an artificial seizure. According to a doctor who presented at my bipolar group, this seizure changes the brain chemistry and gives the brain a chance to restart, hopefully using a more healthy set of chemical interactions.

They do this to hearts, too, only the problem there is electrical signals. Sometimes hearts get out of rhythm, and they stop them, then restart them, hoping they will go into proper rhythm and stay there. They did this on my father a couple of times, but his heart kept getting out of rhythm, so they gave up, and he’s been living for years on “half” a heart.

Brains also may or may not start up properly again. Sometimes, in the process, you lose memories. But the chance of getting rid of depression and the urge to die make ECT seem like it would be worth the chance. It helps some small portion of people with brain chemistry issues. It is usually used after meds and therapy have failed to work.