Electroshock

This book describes for patients and their families the procedures, experience, and the benefits of electroshock therapy (ECT) in the treatment of mental illness. The author draws on forty-five years of clinical and research experience with ECT to discuss the development of the treatment from its discovery in 1934, its acceptance and widespread use for two decades until it was largely replaced by the introduction of psychotropic drugs in the 1950s, and its revival in the past twenty years as an effective and safe treatment now that undesirable side-effects have been almost eliminated by modifications in the procedures used.