Behavior Modification

[Ike Bana]

Originally Posted by merrylander

It was not that long ago when electro shock therapy was used in mental hospitals. In fact there was one here in MD that worked closely with a psychiatrist in the Royal Victoria hospital in Montreal. My former MIL (rest her soul) worked there at the Royal Vic.

Not that long ago...you mean like this morning? ECT never stopped. ECT is being done on psych units every day, everywhere in this country. And I'm assuming in Canada as well. It's not the dramatized stuff like we saw in Cuckoo's Nest anymore (although it once was). It's refined and controled, with low levels of current used, over a series of treatments. But it's still ECT.

I don't know anything about shocking nail biters, or misbehaving pre-adolescents. I'd have to get a lot more information to make a personal determination of what I think of it.

But ECT can be a valuable intervention for people with chronic unresponsive mood disorders, primarily depression, for whom psychotropic meds have not provided any improvement. When I worked on a psych unit, I observed quite a few ECT sessions. The patients are sedated and most of the time it's impossible to tell that anything is happening at all.

I think it's up to those who have such illnesses to decide if it's helped them or not. And I've had several clients who report that it gave them their life back. Others feel it didn't help much at all. But that's the deal with chronic disorders.