9.16.2007

A brief survey





They are going to start putting medical vests on people with various psychosis. Not just any vest, like, a technological vest, suited to trace the little buzzards that fly in between your ears and monitor your mannerisms so that when you throw your left arm in such a way you are bipolar HOWEVER when you throw your left arm in another such way you are a manic depressive.

But I know, I know...there has got to be proof.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), also known as electroshock, is a controversial psychiatric treatment in which seizures are induced with electricity for therapeutic effect. Today, ECT is most often used as a treatment for severe major depression which has not responded to other treatment, and is also used in the treatment of mania, catatonia, schizophrenia and other disorders. It first gained widespread use as a form of treatment in the 1940s and 50s; today, an estimated 1 million people worldwide receive ECT every year,[1] usually in a course of 6-12 treatments administered 2 or 3 times a week. Electroconvulsive therapy can differ in its application in three ways; electrode placement, length of time that the stimulus is given, and the property of the stimulus. The variance of these three forms of application have significant differences in both adverse side effects and positive outcomes. ECT has been shown clinically to be the most effective treatment for severe depression. For at least half of the patients, benefits of treatment are short-lived. After treatment, drug therapy can be continued, and some patients receive continuation/maintenance ECT. Side-effects include confusion and memory loss for events around the time period of treatment. Memory loss may be persistent in a minority of patients whereas confusion usually clears within hours of treatment. Some forms of ECT causes a greater degree of lasting memory loss. It is widely accepted that ECT does not cause brain damage. Informed consent is a standard of modern electroconvulsive therapy. Involuntary treatment is uncommon in countries that follow contemporary standards and is typically only used when the use of ECT is considered potentially life saving.

Ernest Hemingway shot himself after undergoing ECT treatment at the Mayo Clinic.

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