This is what Professor Ehud Klein of the Technion and Rambam said at a seminar on the history of neurological sciences held at the Technion: "Electrical therapy has been found to be effective in 50% of patients who do not respond to medication"
"The treatment of psychiatric diseases using ECT is a treatment whose effectiveness is proven, even if we do not understand its operation." This is what Professor Ehud Klein said in a lecture at a seminar on the history of neurology held at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion.
Professor Klein, faculty member and director of the psychiatry division at the Rambam Medical Center, said that ECT (electrical shock) treatments are subject to a media and public attack by media channels and anti-psychiatry movements. "This opposition is mainly due to the fact that at the beginning - about eighty years ago - these were indeed cruel treatments, performed under duress on awake patients, without the patient's consent and without being explained to him what he was about to undergo. This is the background for movies like 'Francis' and 'The Cuckoo's Nest', and books like 'The Glass Bell', which presented the helplessness of the patients and the opacity of the medical establishment, as well as the fact that the electric shock treatment was used not only to improve the condition of the mentally ill but also to silence them of factors that disturbed the social order. This critical attitude had a significant impact on public opinion, and many still believe today that these treatments constitute a primitive and violent method of oppression.
"However, following changes that have occurred since the middle of the last century, these treatments are currently performed under full anesthesia, with muscle relaxation, and subject to the express consent of the patient. These are safe treatments, with few side effects, mainly transient damage to memory, and they are performed only in cases of deep depression, and not before all medicinal alternatives have been exhausted."
Professor Klein pointed out that in the US alone, about 100 ECT treatments are performed a year - most of them in patients suffering from depression - after the drug treatment has failed. In Israel, about 4,000 such treatments are performed per year. "Electrical therapy has been found to be effective in treating depression in 50% of patients who do not respond to medication, and as mentioned - their effectiveness has been proven beyond any doubt, and today there is still no substitute for them."
Professor Klein's lecture was held as part of the 11th Symposium on the History of Neurological Sciences. These seminars are held under the chairmanship of Professor Moshe Feinsud at the beginning of January every year. Among the topics discussed at the symposium: "The sad paradox of education for thinking", "Bach as an abstract mathematician, the fifth evangelist and an emotional speaker", and "Truth and imagination in childhood memories of sexual abuse".
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Hello! I would love to know where the statistics about the ECT treatment book that are performed in Israel and the USA come from. Thanks!
1. A review of studies on ECT was published in 2019 in the British Medical Journal
The article is by Prof. John Reid, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East London. The article is also signed by Sue Cunliffe, who was a pediatrician before receiving ECT treatments.
The review states that electroconvulsive therapy has no long-term benefit compared to placebo (dham) therapy, while they can cause brain damage. About half of the ten studies reviewed did not find any improvement in the patients' symptoms, but did find long-term cognitive impairment.
They also found that half of the patients who receive the treatment will experience symptoms of brain damage a few years after treatment. Prof. Reed points out that the studies on the subject reduce the value of the side effects and added that brain damage does not always show up in brain scans. The studies do not take into account the physical weakening of the patients as a result of the electrical treatment.
Electric shocks are torture, no research has proven they are effective. However, they are very harmful
A review of studies on ECT was published in 2019 in the British Medical Journal
The article is by Prof. John Reid, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East London. The article is also signed by Sue Cunliffe, who was a pediatrician before receiving ECT treatments.
The review states that electroconvulsive therapy has no long-term benefit compared to placebo (dham) therapy, while they can cause brain damage. About half of the ten studies reviewed did not find any improvement in the patients' symptoms, but did find long-term cognitive impairment.
They also found that half of the patients who receive the treatment will experience symptoms of brain damage a few years after treatment. Prof. Reed points out that the studies on the subject reduce the value of the side effects and added that brain damage does not always show up in brain scans. The studies do not take into account the physical weakening of the patients as a result of the electrical treatment.
have a fun read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_depressive_disorder#Causes
Hi colleague,
I am not aware of any research or theory that explains what depression is.
If you have links to material on the Internet, I would appreciate it.
flint
The questions you asked have been asked for a long time. There are established theories and models regarding depression, its causes and ways to treat those who suffer from it. I'm guessing that at least some of the accumulated knowledge is already known to you and you don't like what makes you claim that no one has asked the right questions until now.
To find an effective treatment for depression, you should start asking questions like: What is depression, and how does it arise?
If we knew the answer to these, we wouldn't need drugs or electric shocks.
The reason the depression passes is a change in the conductivity of the neurons, changes in the currents that cause the phenomenon of depression to disappear for a certain period of time
It is amazing that to this day these treatments are not performed with electromagnetic pulses that can do the same action and even target certain areas of the brain and also adjust the frequency
Maybe they tried and failed
There are effective alternatives to ECT treatment
Subcranial magnetic stimulation has been shown to be effective in clinical studies for the treatment of depression resistant to medication
The treatment success rates approach the success rates of ECT treatments with a significant reduction in side effects
A clinical study recently carried out by an Israeli company on deep subcranial magnetic stimulation (dTMS) claims an even greater therapeutic effect.
(It should be noted that there is currently no data regarding the preservation effect of such a treatment, the length of time that the treatment continues to have an effect is sufficient)