Permanent depression relief…maybe.
Published by Allison July 16th, 2005 in Psychology, Personality, & Mental HealthInteresting research going on out there. While I’ve experienced depression (severe, even), it’s never quite been to the point that anything this extreme would be merited as a treatment. For all the bad rep that ECT gets, I’ve read reports of lives it’s saved.
The pacemaker-like implant has been sold since 1997 to control intractable epilepsy, a much smaller market.
A generator the size of a pocket watch is implanted into the chest. Wires snake up the neck to the vagus nerve, delivering tiny electric shocks through that nerve and into a region of the brain thought to play a role in mood.
Search
Categories
- Admin (14)
- Alli-Babble (16)
- Amuse Me (98)
- Annoy Me (34)
- Culture (63)
- Dating (57)
- Direction (13)
- Feed my Brain (5)
- Feminism (9)
- FTLOG! (5)
- Health & Wellness (17)
- Motherhood (27)
- Movies (1)
- Old Therapy Blog Posts (9)
- Politics (32)
- Psychology, Personality, & Mental Health (61)
- Reading (1)
- Single Motherhood (13)
- Spirituality & Religion (71)
- The Backstory (8)
- This-n-That (39)
I think the public’s perception of ECT comes from the 60s and “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest” rather than present reality. Thanks for linking that article. Today’s ECT is a fraction of the amperage and voltage that was used when the technology was in its infancy. In fact, the voltages used are called “micro-voltages”. One of my clients told me that she is conscious during the whole procedure and cannot even tell when the brain has been “stimulated” (sic).