Reemerging Treatment for Mental Illness Now Available at Middlesex

Middlesex Hospital is using electroconvulsive therapy, or shock therapy, to help patients with severe behavioral health needs.

This way of helping the most vulnerable of patients was used years ago, but it became a controversial form of treatment and much less used due to the circulation of misinformation. Because of popular culture, mainly the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” many believed electroconvulsive therapy was a form of torture.

That is simply not the case.

Electroconvulsive therapy can significantly benefit patients with mental illness, and there is no question that it is a safe and effective form of treatment. With the help of outspoken Kitty Dukakis, the wife of politician Michael Dukakis, people are beginning to realize this. Kitty used electroconvulsive therapy to overcome depression and has publicly shared her story. In part due to her advocacy efforts, electroconvulsive therapy is, once again, becoming an invaluable form of treatment that can offer relief to those who are suffering.

What it does

Electroconvulsive therapy uses a small electric current to produce a generalized cerebral seizure under general anesthesia and is mainly used as a treatment for cases of major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder when other treatments don’t work. Electroconvulsive therapy can be used when there is a lack of response to adequate medicine trials, a presentation of severe symptoms (suicidal tendencies, psychotic depression, etc) or adverse reactions to psychotropic medications.

Facts you should know

• The number of treatments needed cannot be predicted. However, patients need at least six to eight treatments to determine if they’ve had a response to electroconvulsive therapy.
• Once problematic symptoms are alleviated, patients often need to continue treatment for maintenance. This means that they may need treatments monthly or treatments that are more spaced out for a longer period of time.
• Patients sometimes complain about muscle soreness and headaches after receiving electroconvulsive treatment, but medications are given intravenously to make sure that patients are comfortable both during and after the procedure. Other patients report memory loss, but this may improve over time – once treatments are not administered as often.
• The mortality rate for electroconvulsive therapy is lower than for normal childbirth in a hospital or for any other surgical procedure.

For a closer look at electroconvulsive therapy and its benefits, read this 60 Minutes interview.