New Shock Therapy Procedure Works With Fewer Side Effects
As far as side effects, McCall urges physicians and patients to consider what are the most important goals of therapy: the antidepressant response or avoidance of side effects. He says that most memory problems seen after treatment are only temporarily bothersome to patients. Problems with being able to remember events after therapy are seen within the first two weeks following treatment, but soon return to normal. Patients do experience some permanent loss of memories that were made prior to treatment.
"For most patients, this is not a big deal," says McCall. "I always discuss this with my patients prior to ECT. It is almost never an issue for them. Their memories of being depressed are not too precious to them, and they're willing to sacrifice them."
Vital Information:
- Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), or shock therapy, is used to treat depression in patients who do not respond to other treatments, such as medication or psychotherapy.
- One side effect of the treatment is memory loss, but new research shows that giving ECT at a higher intensity to only one side of the brain, instead of both sides of the brain, reduces the chance of memory loss.
- Currently, U.S. physicians cannot administer treatment in this manner, because the FDA does not allow the machines to deliver these higher doses of electrical energy.