What are the types of electroconvulsive therapy?

What are the types of electroconvulsive therapy?

There are 2 types of ECT.

• Bilateral ECT. This is when the current is passed through both sides of your head.
• Unilateral ECT. This is when the current is only on one side of your head.

What is electroconvulsive therapy and why does it work as a treatment for depression?

With ECT, an electrical stimulation is delivered to the brain and causes a seizure. For reasons that doctors don’t completely understand, this seizure helps relieve the symptoms of depression. ECT does not cause any structural damage to the brain.

What are some alternatives to ECT?

If nothing else has helped, including ECT, and you are still severely depressed, you may be offered neurosurgery for mental disorder (NMD), deep brain stimulation (DBS) or vagus nerve stimulation (VNS).

Who gets electroconvulsive therapy?

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a medical treatment most commonly used in patients with severe major depression or bipolar disorder that has not responded to other treatments. ECT involves a brief electrical stimulation of the brain while the patient is under anesthesia.

What is the success rate of electroconvulsive therapy?

What is the Success Rate of Electroconvulsive Therapy? ECT is an effective medical treatment option, helping as many as 80-85 percent of patients who receive it. Most patients remain well for many months afterwards.

What are the negatives of ECT?

Although ECT is generally safe, risks and side effects may include:

• Confusion. Immediately after treatment, you may experience confusion, which can last from a few minutes to several hours.
• Memory loss.
• Physical side effects.
• Medical complications.

What are the long term side effects of ECT?

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been controversially associated with long-lasting memory problems. Verbal learning and memory deficits are commonly reported in studies of people with bipolar disorder (BD).

When does electroconvulsive therapy ( ECT ) work?

ECT often works when other treatments are unsuccessful and when the full course of treatment is completed, but it may not work for everyone. Much of the stigma attached to ECT is based on early treatments in which high doses of electricity were administered without anesthesia, leading to memory loss, fractured bones and other serious side effects.

What happens to brain cells after electroconvulsive therapy?

New brain cells develop in the brain’s hippocampus after electroconvulsive therapy in a healthy mouse (top) and a mouse lacking the protein Narp (bottom). The new cells from the Narp-less mice have fewer branching dendrites, needed for communication with nearby brain cells, than the healthy mice do.

How is electroconvulsive therapy used to treat depression?

ECT is used to treat: Severe depression, particularly when accompanied by detachment from reality (psychosis), a desire to commit suicide or refusal to eat. Treatment-resistant depression, a severe depression that doesn’t improve with medications or other treatments.

Is there any alternative to ECT for depression?

“Figuring out how exactly ECT works on the brain is key to finding better alternatives.”