Dr. Oz: Shock Therapy for Depression
Dr. Oz: Electroshock Therapy Electroconvulsive Therapy ECT; Treating Depression With Electroconvulsive Therapy; Today on Dr. Oz we get the facts about electroconvulsive therapy, a controversial treatment for depression. Guests Dr. Keith Ablow, Dr. Sarah Lisanby, Dr. Roberto Estrada.
Electroshock Therapy - Electroconvulsive Therapy - ECT
Dr. Oz Shock Therapy: Doctors say electroshock therapy is now safe and medically approved, and women say it has saved their lives. Electro Shock Therapy is real and more common than you think.
Dr. Oz says millions of us are depressed and nothing seems to work, not even antidepressants. It was once called ‘electroshock’ therapy and thought to be a barbaric treatment. Now electroconvulsive therapy is making a comeback to treat severe depression. Electroshock therapy makes a comeback.
ECT has also been called electroshock therapy and has gotten a bad rap from because of how it’s portrayed in the media and Hollywood. Electroconvulsive therapy is used to treat severe depression through electricity, doctors induce a seizure, this has been long been shown to work like an antidepressant and mood stabilizer. When ECT was first used in the 1940′s it was done without anesthesia and without precise electrical current. In the 50′s antidepressants became more popular and ECT fell out of fashion. Since then ECT has improved dramatically.
Dr. Oz said today ECT is an approved medical procedure, about 100,000 people undergo this controversial therapy each year, but it is still considered a treatment of last resort. ECT is recommended when a severe clinical depression is not responding to other treatments (such as psychotherapy and medications), or when there is a need for a rapid response (such as when there is a high risk of suicide, or the when the depression itself is threatening the health of the person)
Dr. Oz spoke with Julie today and how ECT changed her life. As the years went by and her depression progressed she was constantly thinking about suicide and said it was like she had a voice in her head saying ‘you don’t deserve to live, you’re a burden on your family, your children would be better off with another mother. Julie tried numerous medications, Physcotherapy and rehabilitation Centers, after 3 suicide attempts her doctor recommended electroconvulsive therapy.
Julie found an immediate difference after her first session of ECT and said it gave her a 180 degree perspective on her life, the results were miraculous from ECT. Julie’s last ECT treatment was 5 years ago and says she leads a full life and very happy, he still takes an antidepressant. She told everyone ECT can save your life and to talk to your doctor about it, ECT works.
ECT has been modernized greatly over the years, with each advance leading to improvements in safety. Research is continuing to come up with even newer means to improve the safety of seizure therapy. One such experimental advance developed by our team is the use of magnetic fields to induce the seizure more safety. This is called Magnetic Seizure Therapy (MST). Magnetic fields are more controlled, and can target specific brain regions more accurately than standard ECT.
How do you know when ECT is the right treatment?
Dr. Oz asked Ablow who were ideal candidates for Electroconvulsive Therapy. ECT is indicated for severe clinical depression or bipolar disorder, and other conditions. ECT is typically used when depression is very severe, or has lasted for a long time and not gotten better with psychotherapy and medications. Sometimes a change in medication dosage, or a switch in medication will be effective for depression, but when it is not, there may be a role for ECT, certain types of depression (such as psychotic depression) or catatonic symptoms predict better response to ECT. There is some evidence that older people actually respond better to ECT than those who are younger.
Dr. Keith Ablow explained to Dr. Oz that ECT works by inducing a seizure in the brain, using low voltage electricity and produces miraculous results for some people. We are inducing a seizure in the brain that seems to reset the chemical messengers or receptors for those messengers in the brain. Nowadays when people get ECT they are sleeping under an anesthesia , their muscles don’t move because they are given a muscle relaxant, they don’t remember the procedure, there is no pain. The amount of electricity is much lower than it was when done many years ago, and the side effects are memory loss possibly, usually very limited and only from around the time of the procedure, but other than that there are no terrible side effects’ says Dr, Ablow.
Another quest Susan said today that ECT saved her life as well, In her 20′s she had a nervous breakdown after her first child, medications didn’t work which led to 6 treatments of electroshock therapy. Susan was diagnosed as bipolar, more treatments followed two years later , medication kept her depression at bay for 40 years, but returned last summer. Susan decided again to turn to ECT which was performed by Dr. Roberto Estrada.
They showed the procedure and the only part of her body that moved was her feet which was very little. Her daughter Jamie said as soon as it’s done her mom wakes up alert and is anxious to go home. She said this has been life altering for her and her mom and she now has her mom back.
Does ECT damage the brain?
ECT
Ablow went on to say ‘we should be doing ECT this more often because it is 80% effective. People should see a psychiatrist, a psychiatrist should be advising their patients that ECT is an alternative that they should consider for severe depression said Ablow.
There are a number of ways to stimulate the brain with electrical and magnetic fields without causing a seizure. The only one of these procedures that is currently FDA approved for clinical depression is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
TMS uses magnetic fields to produce small electrical currents in specific areas of the brain for the treatment of depression. TMS may be indicated when a person fails to respond to one (but not more than one) adequately dosed antidepressant medication in the present episode of depression. In contrast, ECT is effective even after multiple medications have failed to improve depression. TMS is more commonly used for less severe cases of depression, while ECT remains an effective treatment for severe, medication-resistant depression.
Ablow told Oz that most insurance companies cover ECT, it can be performed as an outpatient, sometimes performed as an in patient, it’s not so inconvenient, you’re sleeping for 5 minutes, having this done 6 or 12 times and maybe be done again the future. If you’re talking about a life of chronic depression, ECT is the thing to do said Dr. Ablow.
Dr. Oz ECT Side Effects
Sarah Hollingsworth Lisanby; Unless the person has a very serious medical illness, the risk of life-threatening side effects is extremely rare. The common risks of the seizure include difficulty with memory (amnesia), as well as temporary headache or muscle aching. The types of memories that can be affected include memories of the past (retrograde amnesia), and the ability to remember new information (anterograde amnesia). Many patients experience some degree of anterograde amnesia, but this typically disappears soon after the ECT course ends. People receiving ECT can experience varying amounts of retrograde amnesia. Retrograde amnesia typically deals with events that occurred close in time to the ECT, but it can extend further into the past. The amount of memory effect depends to a large extent on the type of ECT received. Right unilateral ECT (where the right side of the head is stimulated) has less risk of memory loss than bilateral ECT (where the both sides of the head are stimulated). Ultrabrief pulse ECT (which uses a very small amount of electricity) has less risk of memory loss than earlier types of ECT treatment.
Resources:
Dr. Keith Ablow
Dr. Roberto Estrada MD practices geriatric psychiatry in New York, New York. Dr. Estrada graduated with an MD 14 years ago.
Specialties: Geriatric Psychiatry – Most Common Procedures: Electroshock Therapy
Sarah Hollingsworth Lisanby, MD Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Director, Brain Stimulation and Neurophysiology Center
Duke University School of Medicine
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