Question:
Anybody here who's depressed should phone their local psych and make an
apointment before the waiting lists become a mile long. How desperate does somebody have to be to undergo a treatment like this, or
administer it?
Answer:
ELECTRIC convulsive therapy, immortalised in the film One Flew Over
the Cuckoo's Nest, could be better for treating patients with
depression than using drugs.
A report published yesterday in The Lancet concluded that there was
sound evidence to support the use of electro-convulsive therapy (ECT)
in the treatment of short-term depressive illness.
The news will help bolster ECT's position, which has been used in
psychiatry since the 1930s, as a mainstream treatment despite its
portrayal as being barbaric and ineffective.
Researchers at Oxford University have now claimed that, despite the
treatment's association with impaired memory, the technique is fully
justified against depression.
Professor John Geddes from the department of psychiatry at Oxford
University, said his study was the first to analyse systematically all
the available evidence on the psychiatric technique using
sophisticated reviewing methodology.
His team reviewed 73 randomised trials which used ECT in a number of
different ways with varying doses of electricity and administered on
different parts of the patient's head.
Researchers took special note of the decrease in depressive symptoms
after therapy, symptom status after a six-month follow-up, the effect
of therapy on the brain, and the results of ECT on mortality.
Real ECT was significantly more effective than simulated ECT, and the
technique was also far more useful than using some drugs. The
positioning of the equipment on the patient was found to be
significant.
Professor Geddes said: "There seem to have been a great split between
those in favour of ECT and those who think it should never be used. We
looked at the evidence and found that it is an effective treatment for
relieving depressive symptoms. There was also an indication that it
had an effect on cognition in the short term.
"However, it is hard to say if this was directly because of the ECT.
Depression itself can bring about some memory loss.
"Some people will always doubt ECT but there is a good body of
evidence that it is effective. There is a trade-off because the higher
the dose used in ECT, the better the symptoms of depression are
treated.
"But the increased dose may also increase the chance of side-
effects."
Last month, Spanish scientists discovered that depressive patients
appeared to suffer mental problems during maintenance treatment with
ECT.
Previous studies also have shown that acute courses of ECT can lead to
adverse physical effects.
Despite having a negative image, ECT was reintroduced to treat certain
types of mental illness in the 1970s. ECT, which can be given against
the patient's will under the Mental Health Act, became a widespread
treatment in the 1940s and 50s when extensive research led to
refinements in the procedure.
Its popularity as a clinical tool decreased with the introduction of
pharmacological treatments in the 1960s.
Professor Geddes said: "There was a problem with the way the treatment
was administered in the past. Patients weren't given enough
information about it and it was a lot more frightening.
"Nowadays it is also used with anaesthetic and the convulsion that is
triggered is hard to see. The entire procedure lasts minutes. ECT in
Scotland is very well thought of. It is taken very seriously in
Scotland and a number of audits have shown how well it is practised
there.
"ECT remains an important treatment option for the management of
severe depression."
yeah it is far more effective to lower the dose to subliminal levels,
while stretching out the time the dose is given to 2.5 hour 'sessions"
while calling your dose administering gizmo 'a religious artifact" http://www.lermanet.com/e-metershort.htm
Ferengi + Borg = Scientology
I'd prefer to die speaking my mind than live fearing to speak.
The only thing that always works in scientology are its lawyers
The internet is the liberty tree of the new millennium
Secrets are the mortar binding lies as bricks together into prisons for the mind
http://www.lermanet.com - mentioned 4 January 2000 in
The Washington Post's - 'Reliable Source' column re "Scientologist with no HEAD" Yah, helping someone who might be on the verge of suicide is a real shame.
Better to let them 'live' for years in severe depressions, making every
day a hell. Or in the case of scientogy, lock them up with a guard at the
door and strange people who don't talk to you but try with force to put a
turkey baster in your throat and give you shots without your consent. http://www.whyaretheydead.net/lisa_mcpherson/logs/lisam.htm
These are all of your alternatives? it is such desperation that usually prompts someone to seek help.
Unfortunately $cientology has been playing on the emotions and needs of such
people from the beginning, sometimes resulting in death, most of the time
resulting in (as Hubnose said) people Making money, making more money, and
getting others to make more money for $cientology. Alas, one cannot judge an entire planet on the basis of one singular,
effective treatment for depression. Are you depressed? Perhaps you should
seek some assistance. Not likely. Hubbard claimed to have been on Mars and Venus, the latter
being where he said he was nearly run over by a freight train. Pretty
kooky, huh? But not as bizarre as the bad space opera which is the Xenu
story. See http://www.xenu.net if you really want to learn more.
