The history of electric shock therapy (Essay Sample)

History of Electric Shock Therapy Name Institution Introduction Electric shock therapy which is also known as Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is one of the most controversial treatment of psychiatric conditions today. Its critiques argue that ECT is used as a coercive tool in psychiatry. They argue that it leads to memory loss and brain damage. The advocates on the other hand say that ECT is the most effective and life saving psychiatric treatment today (Rollin, 2010). They actually consider ECT the penicillin of psychiatry due its ability to cure several mental illnesses. The paper seeks to provide a historical perspective of ECT which will also provide light on its use as treatment for psychiatric conditions. Historical Background The term electric shock therapy comes from the use of electric current for treatment. Though, the first treatment by ECT was not actually done by electric current but rather by the use of chemicals. The very first use of ECT was in 1930s where researchers injected chemicals in people with mental disorders. The chemicals were used to induce seizures, but they were later replaced by the now common practice use of electric currents. The idea ECT was born from the practice of physical therapies, which acted on the brain as the center of mental illness. The whole concept of physical therapies was to shock the brain so that it would get itself out the mental illness by the aid of the physical stimulus. Contrary to the understanding of many, ECT does not cause shock. Rather the patients experience unconsciousness from the dose of electric current or chemicals induced Ladislas Meduna is actually credited as the pioneer of ECT. He used the chemical leptazol a convulsion to induce shocks to his patients. His experiments were short lived because his patients experienced terrifying moments during the pre-convulsive period. Another known figure during the early years of ECT is Manfred Sakel who introduced the use of insulin as a chemical to induce shock in the treatment of schizophrenia. Sakel believed that the increased level of adrenaline was the cause of mental illness. He used insulin as a biological antagonism yo adrenalin. In 1937, Ugo Cerletti began experimenting with the use of electric shock to treat schizophrenia. He felt that the use of chemical induced convulsions such as Metrazol and insulin were far too much dangerous and difficult to control. The idea of use electric shock came into his mind after seeing the use of electric shock on pigs to act as anesthesia before they were slaughtered. After experiments with dogs and other animals Ugo and his two colleagues Lucio Bini and Kalinowski began to develop apparatus that could deliver electric shock to human beings. Ugo first used electro shocks on patients with acute onset schizophrenia. He gave the patients 10 to 20 ECT shocks on alternate and was able recommend tremendous improvement on their condition (Lothar and Foster, 1943). After their success in 1939, Kalinowski began to travel across Europe and United States advertising the use of ECT. When ECT began to be used in those early years, it was administered without muscle relaxants or anesthesia. The therapy was administered in early morning on an empty stomach. The patient was fully awake so a tongue depressor was placed in one side of the mouth between the upper and lower molar when treatment was given. The elec...