In cases which medication and or psychiatric counseling does not help alleviate a person’s severe depression shock therapy may be helpful. Shock therapy used to have a negative reputation. But in recent years, it cheap prada purses fendi has greatly improved and can provide relief for people with severe depression who cheap prada purses fendi have not been able to feel better with other treatments.
This 8 minute video shows a cheap prada purses fendi real case study of a women going through shock therapy for cheap prada purses fendi her depression the severest form. Worth watching if you cheap prada purses fendi are considering shock therapy treatment for severe depression.
Many people, including patients and cheap prada purses fendi psychiatrists, believe that shock therapy can be an invaluable tool in the cheap prada purses fendi recovery from clinical depression, while others criticize it as unsafe, extreme and cheap prada purses fendi even unhelpful.
Earlier this cheap prada purses fendi year, influential mental health organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association and cheap prada purses fendi the National Alliance on Mental Illness, teamed up to urge that cheap prada purses fendi the FDA downgrade the risk rating of ECT (shock therapy) devices to cheap prada purses fendi medium-risk from high-risk, a move that would put them in the cheap prada purses fendi same risk category as syringes and surgical drills. After reviewing the cheap prada purses fendi request, an FDA advisory committee in March recommended against taking this cheap prada purses fendi action — not because the cheap prada purses fendi procedure is known to be unsafe but because there’s little research that cheap prada purses fendi proves it is safe, particularly long term. Proponents of ECT argue that cheap prada purses fendi this will make it difficult for many patients who would benefit by having access to cheap prada purses fendi ECT, with some saying that such a ruling even may make the cheap prada purses fendi treatment unavailable altogether.
Safety Testing Hasn’t Been Done
Though ECT has cheap prada purses fendi been around in one form or another since the 1930s, you cheap prada purses fendi may be surprised to learn that it has never undergone rigorous clinical trials. Because of its long history of use, it cheap prada purses fendi was grandfathered into FDA regulations in 1976, when the agency was given more authority to cheap prada purses fendi regulate medical devices. At the time it was categorized as “high-risk,” primarily because of the cheap prada purses fendi memory loss and other cognitive problems suffered by recipients. But keeping it cheap prada purses fendi in that category going forward may mean that manufacturers would be cheap prada purses fendi required to perform expensive and time-consuming tests to prove safety — which device makers claim they cannot afford.
As agency officials ponder their decision, I put in a cheap prada purses fendi call to Charles Kellner, MD, a professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and cheap prada purses fendi a leader in ECT research. He told me that the technology does have cheap prada purses fendi some history of abuse — such as when cheap prada purses fendi patients at psychiatric hospitals received ECT simply for not being cooperative… or cheap prada purses fendi when ECT was used as a punishment for troublesome inmates in prison — and cheap prada purses fendi acknowledged that as a result there is a stigma surrounding it. But he believes that cheap prada purses fendi evidence shows today’s version of ECT is cheap prada purses fendi safe, painless and effective for people with severe depression who have cheap prada purses fendi found no relief from other therapies.
Is ECT Dangerous?
About 100,000 American adults undergo ECT each year. It’s typically prescribed for patients who haven’t been helped by medications and psychotherapy, and 60% to 90% are helped by the treatment. It’s believed that cheap prada purses fendi ECT works by triggering changes in brain chemistry that reverse at least some of the cheap prada purses fendi symptoms of serious mental illness, often within days.
The main criticism of ECT is that it causes memory loss — and it does — but Dr. Kellner cited three reasons he believes the cheap prada purses fendi concern is exaggerated…
* Modern techniques, such as lower doses of electricity and cheap prada purses fendi application to only one side of the brain, have greatly reduced memory loss in comparison to cheap prada purses fendi past methods of administration.
* The memory loss that cheap prada purses fendi does occur varies greatly by individual and is usually only temporary — typically lasting for a few weeks.
* When you cheap prada purses fendi have a potentially life-threatening disease that can lead to suicide — the eleventh-leading cause of death in the US — the cheap prada purses fendi vast majority of psychiatrists believe that the benefits outweigh the risks.
What Patients Experience
ECT can cheap prada purses fendi be administered on an outpatient basis and typically involves six to cheap prada purses fendi 12 treatments over three to five weeks, each costing $1,000 to $2,000. Some insurance companies pay for the treatments, others don’t.
Each treatment begins with the patient being given a muscle relaxant… a foam bite block… and cheap prada purses fendi general anesthesia through an IV line, which renders the patient unconscious and cheap prada purses fendi unaware during the procedure. An electrode pad is placed on his/her forehead, through which a cheap prada purses fendi mild electrical current is passed, triggering a seizure that lasts about 45 seconds. The patient wakes up within 10 minutes or cheap prada purses fendi so, is taken to a recovery area to be monitored for cheap prada purses fendi any problems (such as increased heart rate and blood pressure) and cheap prada purses fendi goes home, usually about an hour after the treatment. Many patients experience temporary confusion and cheap prada purses fendi disorientation, which typically doesn’t last more than cheap prada purses fendi a few hours and usually just a few minutes. Other possible transitory side effects include nausea, vomiting, headache, jaw pain and cheap prada purses fendi muscle aches or spasms.
Take the Bad with the Good?
Serious depression is cheap prada purses fendi often a lifelong illness, Dr. Kellner noted, and although ECT alleviates current symptoms, it cheap prada purses fendi cannot cure the underlying disease. Therefore, if they are not already taking it, patients also are cheap prada purses fendi given antidepressant medication to prevent the next depressive episode. Some 20% of patients also receive prophylactic maintenance ECT — a once-a-month repeat treatment to forestall future occurrences of depression.
Dr. Kellner compares ECT to cheap prada purses fendi serious medical interventions in other health crises — for cheap prada purses fendi example, coronary bypass for people with heart disease and chemotherapy for cheap prada purses fendi those with cancer. They’re not easy or cheap prada purses fendi risk-free treatments, but they can and do save lives. He pointed out that cheap prada purses fendi many people fail to understand that severe depression also threatens survival — and for patients with this disease, ECT can likewise be lifesaving.
Source(s):
Charles Kellner, MD, professor of psychiatry and cheap prada purses fendi director of the division of geriatric psychiatry, director of the ECT Clinical Service, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City. Dr. Kellner is cheap prada purses fendi a leader in the field of electroconvulsive therapy research. He is cheap prada purses fendi the coprincipal investigator of a multisite study of maintenance ECT for cheap prada purses fendi geriatric depression and has led the collaborative ECT research group, Consortium for cheap prada purses fendi Research in ECT (CORE), in the performance of NIMH-sponsored multisite research protocols.
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