Shock Treatment - The Myth, Reality And More

Sam, a 30 yr old man was an inhabitant in a mental hospital for last 5 years. He was brought there by a social worker who found him wandering along the street. He don’t know who he himself was, and has no idea about his past. Even his name ‘Sam’ was given by someone else.

Then a cruel doctor came to the hospital as the chief. As punishment of misbehavior the doctor has punished Sam by giving ’shock treatment’ (Electro Convulsive Therapy or ECT). During the shock treatment, he had flashes of his past..and he regained his memory. The rest of the story is thrilling..with fights and love songs like any other Indian film!! because this story is that of an film that I have seen during my childhood.

More than a film story it is the public’s idea about ECT(shock treatment). I have worried many times thinking about the “cruelty” that doctors do to mental patients connecting two “current plates” to either side of head and passing electricity through it!. This myth continued in my mind until I became a doctor (or until a few years before that).

Unlike as many films show, its not the prescription of a cruel doctor but of a wise doctor because The use of ECT replaced all other forms of drug treatment in psychiatry (at least to a considerable extent). Patients suffering from any form of psychosis, depression, dementia, personality disorder, psychopathy, or even homosexuality were considered for the new treatment. Its more than just shaking the head with shock as we hake an old radio set when its not working properly.

Films use ECT as a story twist for a flashback. But, rather than a memory booster, ECT is a memory suppressor (yeah..its a side effect). ECT causes a short term memory loss which may get accumulated if a person is subjected to ECT repeatedly; still its largely reversible.

ECT is not attaching electric plates to head and passing 230 domestic line current through it. It has pretested standard voltage levels an durations.

For a detailed knowledge on ECT, please read at Providentia

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