Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) used to be a dangerous treatment 50 years ago but a lot has changed today. Over the past 30 years, the techniques of anesthesia have greatly improved, we have better and safer sedative drugs, there are monitoring machines and the procedure is always done in a health care facility.
Unlike the past, ECT today is a bona fide treatment for some mental health disorders and not a sadistic procedure as depicted in the movies. It is very rare for any individual to complain of pain before, during or after the procedure. Medicine was primitive 50 years ago and no doubt was a cause of many painful ordeals-but this was not unique to ECT but to all of medicine and surgery.
Today, the American Psychiatric Association has very strict guidelines for ECT administration. One can not simply hand over a prescription to a patient to go to a hospital and have shock therapy. The American psychiatric organization supports use of ECT only to treat severe, disabling mental disorders and is never used to control behavior.
Despite its dubious past, electroconvulsive therapy is now a relatively safe and effective procedure. Compared to the conventional anti depressants, ECT works faster and can help resolve acute depression when other treatments have failed. However, like all things in medicine, ECT does have certain risks which are real but very small.
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