With many depression sufferers growing weary of traditional drug treatments to combat depression, there is much research going on to find better homeopathic, natural and alternative ways to treat this group of illnesses. All this research has led to a bevy of different treatment types which include herbal treatments like St. John’s Wort, homeopathic treatments like fish oil and a reversion to an old standard: electric shock therapy. It may be surprising to note that decades ago the doctors knew better how to treat depression than they seem to now. Sometimes advancements in medical and mental health science lead us back to something tried and true which has more benefits and fewer side effects than any of the new treatments available.
Depression Electric Shock Therapy
A new twist on this old standard sees doctors increasingly treating severely depressed people and those who are resistant to drug treatments with depression electric shock therapy. Many treatments are being tested but there are those that have been approved for regular usage by the FDA after a significant amount of research has found the benefits to outweigh the side effects and that it is more effective than many drug treatments. It is mainly used on people who have tried various different forms of drug and homeopathic treatments and have had no improvement. Depression electric shock therapy can be used on people who have many different forms of depression. People have been treated for depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and even post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Most patients see immediate results and have few side effects which can be vastly different from drug treatments which have a wide array of intolerable side effects and do not see results for over a month.
Working the Shock
Way back in the 1940s doctors understood the changes that occurred in the brain were caused by and could be effected by electricity. Using directed electric shocks, the depressive state can be all but eliminated and the chance of recurrence is negligible in many cases. The differences between current depression electric shock therapy and the early treatments is that the dosage in the shock is considerably lower and the shock is directed at a particular area of the brain. The therapy causes a mild seizure and alters the electrical composition of the brain to effect the change in mood.
Side Effects
While the side effects of depression electric shock therapy are few, they are important to note. These treatments induce a mild seizure which has the potential to increase and has a very slim possibility of causing a seizure disorder. The newer, more directed forms of depression electric shock therapy have less likelihood of producing such disorders and some do not even produce a seizure during treatment. Some permanent memory loss is possible but most people report the problem as being short term and mild. Some patients report a mild headache and mild muscle twitching, but the most reported side effect of the treatment is the damage done to the patient’s bank account.
