Electroshock Therapy

"It was a brilliant cure, but we lost the patient," Ernest Hemingway remarked famously after receiving electroshock therapy for depression in 1961. Forty years later, a new study finds that the cure rate for the controversial treatment is far from brilliant, even when combined with drug therapy.

Carrie Fisher has done an excellent job of reinventing herself as ... Carrie Fisher, evolving from ingenue actress and geek pinup to salty, tell-it-like-it-is writer and humorist. And as Just Carrie Fisher she has a lot to say, mostly about her odd but compelling life, and enough to add a Part 2 to her memoirs. "Shockaholic" follows 2009's "Wishful Drinking," a bestseller that Fisher also turned into a one-woman show. The title is a clue to the reason Fisher says she wrote the book; a few years ago she started undergoing electroconvulsive therapy to treat depression.

Carrie Fisher has done an excellent job of reinventing herself as ... Carrie Fisher, evolving from ingenue actress and geek pinup to salty, tell-it-like-it-is writer and humorist. And as Just Carrie Fisher she has a lot to say, mostly about her odd but compelling life, and enough to add a Part 2 to her memoirs. "Shockaholic" follows 2009's "Wishful Drinking," a bestseller that Fisher also turned into a one-woman show. The title is a clue to the reason Fisher says she wrote the book; a few years ago she started undergoing electroconvulsive therapy to treat depression.

Psychiatry is an easy field to demonize. Psychiatrists treat inexplicable, malevolent illnesses that often have no physical appearance: Depression is not facial disfigurement, mania is not a rash. Sometimes our treatments also seem inexplicable, and then it's easy to feel that they are malevolent too. The most highly feared treatment that a psychiatrist can recommend is electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT. Last month, I recommended ECT for an elderly patient.

An 80-year-old nursing home patient has refused the electroshock therapy doctors say would cure her depression, and her legal guardian is asking a court to decide the case. "I don't think we should try to force happiness on her under these circumstances," Patrick Murphy, Cook County public guardian, said Thursday.

The country's largest professional group of psychiatrists announced elaborate guidelines Thursday for the use of electroshock therapy, the controversial treatment for severe depression that is experiencing a resurgence in medical practice. The guidelines drawn up by the American Psychiatric Assn. were described as among the most detailed ever issued to explain how a therapy should be used--testament to rapid advances in the science of shock therapy and to public pressure for accountability.

A Los Angeles psychiatrist under investigation for allegedly overprescribing drugs to the late filmmaker Don Simpson was sued Tuesday by a former patient who contends that she was subjected to electroshock therapy against her will. The medical malpractice and battery lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by onetime Playboy centerfold Melissa Holliday, alleges that Dr. Nomi J.

The electrical current throbs from one side of the skull to the other, scrambling circuits along the way, inducing a brief seizure. When it's over and the anesthesia wears off, patients often are subdued, confused, sometimes unsure of where they are or why. Then, sometimes, the remarkable happens: Severely depressed people find that the darkness has lifted; they feel better than they have in years. Others are left distraught. They've been shocked -- and feel no better than before.

Tina York needed a brain boost. She removed her earrings, clipped electrodes to her ear lobes and set the timer on a device nicknamed "the Brainman." After zapping herself with an electric current for 20 minutes, she emerged a stress-free woman. "Your whole perception of things will change," says York, a Los Angeles kinesiologist in private practice. "Everyone should experience this. It's like a runner's high." She was relaxed and alert, she says, all thanks to a little battery-operated box.

Fifty years after its introduction--and five years after voters in Berkeley tried to ban it--there are still few controversies in psychiatry more polarizing than the question of whether electricity should be used to induce seizures to treat depression. Critics of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) say that, even when used properly, it causes brain damage and works only by confusing patients so they can't remember why they were depressed.

The electrical current throbs from one side of the skull to the other, scrambling circuits along the way, inducing a brief seizure. When it's over and the anesthesia wears off, patients often are subdued, confused, sometimes unsure of where they are or why. Then, sometimes, the remarkable happens: Severely depressed people find that the darkness has lifted; they feel better than they have in years. Others are left distraught. They've been shocked -- and feel no better than before.

"It was a brilliant cure, but we lost the patient," Ernest Hemingway remarked famously after receiving electroshock therapy for depression in 1961. Forty years later, a new study finds that the cure rate for the controversial treatment is far from brilliant, even when combined with drug therapy.

A Los Angeles psychiatrist under investigation for allegedly overprescribing drugs to the late filmmaker Don Simpson was sued Tuesday by a former patient who contends that she was subjected to electroshock therapy against her will. The medical malpractice and battery lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by onetime Playboy centerfold Melissa Holliday, alleges that Dr. Nomi J.

An 80-year-old nursing home patient has refused the electroshock therapy doctors say would cure her depression, and her legal guardian is asking a court to decide the case. "I don't think we should try to force happiness on her under these circumstances," Patrick Murphy, Cook County public guardian, said Thursday.

When talk-show host Dick Cavett revealed recently that he had undergone electroconvulsive therapy for severe depression, he broke the ice on discussing one of medicine's most controversial treatments. Thousands of Americans each year receive what is widely known as ECT or electric-shock therapy; few talk about it. ECT has made a steady resurgence over the last five years as a treatment for those with particular forms of severe mental illness.

Tina York needed a brain boost. She removed her earrings, clipped electrodes to her ear lobes and set the timer on a device nicknamed "the Brainman." After zapping herself with an electric current for 20 minutes, she emerged a stress-free woman. "Your whole perception of things will change," says York, a Los Angeles kinesiologist in private practice. "Everyone should experience this. It's like a runner's high." She was relaxed and alert, she says, all thanks to a little battery-operated box.

When talk-show host Dick Cavett revealed recently that he had undergone electroconvulsive therapy for severe depression, he broke the ice on discussing one of medicine's most controversial treatments. Thousands of Americans each year receive what is widely known as ECT or electric-shock therapy; few talk about it. ECT has made a steady resurgence over the last five years as a treatment for those with particular forms of severe mental illness.

Psychiatry is an easy field to demonize. Psychiatrists treat inexplicable, malevolent illnesses that often have no physical appearance: Depression is not facial disfigurement, mania is not a rash. Sometimes our treatments also seem inexplicable, and then it's easy to feel that they are malevolent too. The most highly feared treatment that a psychiatrist can recommend is electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT. Last month, I recommended ECT for an elderly patient.

The country's largest professional group of psychiatrists announced elaborate guidelines Thursday for the use of electroshock therapy, the controversial treatment for severe depression that is experiencing a resurgence in medical practice. The guidelines drawn up by the American Psychiatric Assn. were described as among the most detailed ever issued to explain how a therapy should be used--testament to rapid advances in the science of shock therapy and to public pressure for accountability.

Fifty years after its introduction--and five years after voters in Berkeley tried to ban it--there are still few controversies in psychiatry more polarizing than the question of whether electricity should be used to induce seizures to treat depression. Critics of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) say that, even when used properly, it causes brain damage and works only by confusing patients so they can't remember why they were depressed.