ECT counselling Flashcards
What is it?
ECT stands for electro convulsive therapy.
ECT is most commonly used to treat severe depression not responding to drug treatment.
In severe cases of depression, ECT may be the best treatment and it can be life saving.
Is it barbaric?
It is not a barbaric treatment. Due to the advances in the field of anaesthesia and with modern equipment, ECT has become more sophisticated and you may not experience any pain or suffering.
How does it work?
The exact mechanism is not known
During ECT, a small amount of
electric current is passed across your brain. This current produces a fit/seizure, which
affects the entire brain including centres that control thinking, mood, appetite and sleep.
Repeated treatments alter the chemical imbalance in the brain and bring them back to -
normal. This helps you begin to recover from your illness.
What will happen?
An ECT treatment involves having an anaesthetic. The anaesthetist will ask you to hold
out your hands so you can be given an anaesthetic injection. It will make you go to sleep
and cause your muscles to relax completely. You will be given some oxygen to breathe
as you go off to sleep. Once you are fast asleep, a small amount of electric current is
passed across your head and this causes a mild fit/seizure in the brain. There are little
movements of your body because of the relaxant injection that the anaesthetist gives
How effective is it?
8/10 patients with severe depression respond to ECT
How long is a course
6-8 doses, twice weekly
Common side effects
Some patients may be confused and get headaches just after they awaken from the treatment, and this generally clears up within an hour or so.
Sometimes your memory of recent events may be upset and this memory loss goes away within a few days or weeks.
But ECT does not have any long-term effects on your memory or your intelligence.
Is it safe?
ECT is amongst the safest medical treatments given under general anaesthesia; the risk of
death or serious injury with ECT is rare and occurs in about one in 50,000 treatments.
This is much lower than that reported for childbirth.
Very rarely deaths do occur and these are usually because of heart problems..
Consent
At some stage before the treatments, we will ask you to sign a
consent form for ECT. If you sign the form it means that you are agreeing to have up to a
certain number of treatments (usually 6). You can refuse to have ECT and you may withdraw your consent at any time, even before the first treatment has been given. The consent form is not a legal document and does not commit you to have the treatment.
It is a record that an explanation has been given to you and that you understand to your satisfaction what is going to happen to you.
Withdrawal of your consent to ECT will not in any way alter your right to continue treatment with the best alternative methods available
Concerns about memory loss
Concerns about memory loss; If there are serious concerns about memory problems,
instead of giving the electrical stimulus bilaterally across both temples, we can give it
unilaterally to just one side of the head.
