I Think The Disease Was There
Looking back on his middle-class childhood in Dilliner, Pa., a small cluster of homes a dozen miles north of the Rockefeller institute, Buckhalter finds few clues to the life he would soon be living. He wanted for little. His father had a good job with a mining company. His mother is an administrative assistant at West Virginia University. He has a brother and a sister. He did not experience childhood trauma often linked to later drug use, although his mother said he was at times unusually anxious.
If a shoe had to be ordered, for instance, I couldnt wait, he recalled. I had to have it right now, that instant gratification. I had to have it and if I didnt, there was problems. I didnt notice it so much then as I do now. I think the disease was there.
It was the same obsessiveness he brought to sports, where he drove himself to be the best and always was. At tiny Maplewood High, Buckhalter starred in baseball and basketball, but truly stood out in football. Elite Division I programs such as Penn State and the University of Iowa scouted the gifted wide receiver, offering the chance at a full scholarship.
He was 110 percent go no matter what he was doing, said George Messich, who has coached the Maplewood team for 41 years and considers Buckhalter one of the best receivers in school history. If you were in the clutch and you threw the ball up, he was coming down with it.
Why Is Electroconvulsive Therapy So Controversial
The controversy of electroconvulsive therapy comes mostly from its early use without anesthesia and the injuries this caused. ECT has been stigmatized in the media and films by its depictions as a brutal and painful therapy. Since its early use, research has improved the treatment and made it more safe and effective for patients.
The controversy of electroconvulsive therapy is also related to the evidence and ethics of the procedure. Some physicians still question the effectiveness of the treatment versus the risks of side effects it can cause. There is documented evidence of it being effective for people who have no other treatment options. However, other studies have shown that relapse of the mental health disorder is common following the procedure. Given that it may not offer a long-term solution, some physicians argue ECT is not worth the risk unless its used as a last resort.
A person considering ECT should discuss the risks and benefits with their physician.
What Is Electroconvulsive Therapy For Depression
was written by Boris MacKey
on February 2, 2020
Electroconvulsive therapy has a controversial history. People associate electroconvulsive therapy with abusive institutions in the past.
However, the procedure is painless today.
ECT is undoubtedly a useful treatment. ECT was never quack medicine it has always been an effective treatment for mental health problems.
Electroconvulsive therapy involves giving a patient a seizure by sending electricity into their brain. These seizures undoubtedly benefit many patients. Depression, mania, and psychosis often disappear for a long time afterwards.
ECT has not become obsolete because of newer and better treatments. Many cases of severe depression and schizophrenia are challenging to treat.
Drugs and talk therapy do not always work. If a patient is resistant to other treatments, doctors may recommend ECT.
While modern ECT is painless, it is not necessarily safe. Even today, repeatedly undergoing electroconvulsive therapy can damage a persons long term memory.
For this reason, some doctors are against ECT. The medical establishment remains in favour of it because of how effective it is.
Doctors only consider ECT if the problem is severe and is resistant to other treatments. In those cases, doctors believe the benefits outweigh the risks.
Patients must know about the dangers before they consent to ECT.
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Key Points: Understanding Electroconvulsive Therapy And Your Recovery
There are a couple of key points to remember about ECT, including:
- Electroconvulsive therapy is a treatment that can be effective for certain patient populations with mental health disorders, such as major depressive disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
- ECT has short- and long-term risks that may outweigh its benefits. Before undergoing ECT as a therapy for a mental health condition, the risks and benefits should be discussed with a physician.
Addiction and mental health challenges can be difficult, but you dont have to face them alone. If you or a loved is living with a substance use or co-occurring mental health disorder, evidence-based care is available. The Recovery Village Palm Beach at Baptist Health today for more information.
- Sources
National Institute of Mental Health. Brain Stimulation Therapies: Electroconvulsive Therapy. June 2016. Accessed July 19, 2019.
Private Rooms Safe Environment
All patients have private rooms with bathrooms and special state-of-the-art safety features. We maintain a safe, inviting, therapeutic environment based on the latest research in behavioral health care design. For example, each patient room is equipped with an individual audio system so patients can listen to music for relaxation and therapeutic benefits. Group spaces invite interaction and daily-living activities. A private, outdoor patio allows patients the benefits nature brings to the healing process.
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What Is Electroconvulsive Therapy
There are many misconceptions about ECT online, so it is important to find well-sourced information about what electroconvulsive therapy does. So what is ECT, and how does ECT work?
Electroconvulsive therapy applies electricity to the brain to reset the pattern of the brains neurons. It is one of several different types of brain stimulation therapies. ECT is accomplished by connecting electrodes to the scalp, running electric current into the brain and causing a small, controlled seizure.
Though the exact mechanism of how ECT works is unclear, researchers know that ECT creates large-scale and small-scale physiologic changes that help reset the structure and functioning of the brains neurons. In particular, it affects neurons that are responsible for mood and reality processing.
What Results Can I Expect
Not everyone responds well to ECT services it depends on the severity of each case and how long they have had their symptoms.
Some patients only require six to 12 treatments others need monthly therapies for several months. It all depends on what works best for them and how their body responds to treatment.
Maintenance ECT has proven successful in reducing the symptoms of many mental disorders, including schizophrenia, anxiety, catatonia, and manic depression. Not everyone responds well to ECT service it depends on the severity of each case and how long they have had their symptoms.
Some patients only require six to 12 treatments others need monthly therapies for several months. It all depends on what works best for them and how their body responds to treatment.
ECT has proven successful in reducing the symptoms of many mental disorders, including schizophrenia, anxiety, catatonia, and manic depression.
ECT is a very safe medical treatment that requires special preparation to ensure their comfort and safety.
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Who Can Benefit From Ect
Electroconvulsive therapy is usually reserved for situations where medication or psychotherapy have been unable to adequately treat a mental health condition. Certain mental health conditions are particularly responsive to ECT, and ECT is approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat the following:
Treatment of schizoaffective disorder utilizes ECT for depression, bipolar disorder symptoms and schizophrenia symptoms.
You are likely to experience substantial ECT benefits if:
- You have a severe mental health condition
- You are at immediate risk for suicide due to a mental health condition
- You need or desire a fast-acting treatment
- You need or wish to be treated for a mental health condition without using medications
- You have not responded to medications or psychotherapy to treat a mental health condition
- You are pregnant and have a mental health condition
- You are an older patient with a mental health condition
ECT treatment has been well studied in pregnant women and the elderly, and it is usually safer than medications in these groups.
Electroconvulsive therapy works well and works quickly. Decades of research have shown that about 80% of patients with uncomplicated cases of depression improve after ECT treatment. The rate of improvement is similar in patients with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
How To Prepare For Ect
ECT is a very safe medical treatment that requires special preparation to ensure their comfort and safety.
The day before ECT, the patient should have nothing by mouth from midnight. They will also receive muscle relaxants and an anesthetic, and other medications to prepare them for the procedure.
Before receiving your first ECT treatment, youll need a comprehensive evaluation, which generally entails:
- A physical examination.
- Laboratory work includes blood counts, chemistry panel, and thyroid function tests.
- Electrocardiogram .
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Outpatient Drug Rehab Nj
Drug rehab is a very broad term for treatments, therapy, and care for a myriad of conditions related to drug abuse, physical dependence on drugs, and drug addiction. Rehab programs throughout the country offer all types of therapy, treatments and programs. Some common treatments include:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy
- Evidence-based treatments
- Vivitrol treatments to help with alcohol and opioid relapse prevention
Addiction can be an all-encompassing illness, not only of the brain and body, but of the spirit as well. For this reason, we incorporate 12-step programs that ask participants to relinquish control to a higher power, and we offer alternative treatments like yoga and meditation for a whole-patient spiritual healing that, even if you are not traditionally religious, will increase your overall well-being, promote inner peace, and help you to release unhelpful or painful emotions.
Our Electroconvulsive Therapy Program At Sonora
Our ECT program is an option for care that is designed to minimize the symptoms of complex mental health conditions, including:
- Psychotic depression
- Severe depression
When ECT is incorporated into your comprehensive and personalized plan of care, you will likely come to experience the relief you need to function in a healthy manner. Additionally, you will also be able to focus on the other aspects of your healing journey that require your attention. This can allow you to develop the skills you need to manage your mental illness in a beneficial way.
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The Advantages Of Ect
Simply put, ECT is more effective than drugs. ECT benefits many patients that other treatments fail to help. Electroconvulsive therapy works rapidly pills often take a while to work, talk therapy takes even longer.
Many psychologists say that they would seek out ECT themselves if they had severe clinical depression.
A person undergoing a typical ECT treatment may go through eight or twelve shock treatments.
These repeated treatments do not take as long as you might assume.
Each treatment takes only a few minutes. ECT is not painful, not time-consuming, and not very invasive.
The bad reputation of the therapy comes from doctors using it unethically in the past. The treatment is much gentler now.
A trip to the dentist can feel more dramatic than modern ECT.
Psychologists know how debilitating depression can be. A profoundly depressed person may resemble a stroke victim.
They may not talk or move and might fall into a catatonic state. They may believe that they are dying, that their body is shutting down.
A depressed person looks physically sick and is fed intravenously at the hospital in extreme cases.
Severely depressed people are also at risk of suicide. Sometimes, drugs are enough to treat the suicidal feelings.
However, it can take weeks for medications to help someone overcome a state of profound depression.
Sometimes, no pills are effective. ECT is much faster and much more reliable. It can get a patient out of a painful and life-threatening state.
The Edge Offers A New Perspective On Gaming Recovery
On the other end of the spectrum, another approach to gaming addiction treatment is that of residential destination rehab: programming administered in a retreat-like setting that unplugs gamers from virtual reality and immerses them in nature, sports and genuine relationships.
The Edge Rehab in Thailand has developed a gamer-centric addiction treatment programme for young men, designed in collaboration with Game Quitters, the worlds largest online community of gaming addicts. The programme incorporates plenty of real-world experiential therapy via fitness and wilderness activities. Says counsellor Steve Jenkins, Self esteem is usually one of the first things to go when one is going through or whatever their issue happens to be. Here they are working together as a team. And there is positive peer pressure they are pushing together they tend to be a very cohesive group.
He explains the calming effects and therapeutic benefits of intensive exercise: The fortunate side product of physical activity is it makes young men more manageable as they are all very tired after, and it helps them to be more open to the therapeutic side of the programme they are then able to relax and listen to whats going on.
If your son is struggling with gaming addiction, The Edge can help him overcome it and unlock his full academic and social potential. To learn how we can help your son become a game quitter, talk to us today.
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Shock Therapy: Process Preparation Outcomes And More
Steven Gans, MD, is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Shock therapy, known medically as electroconvulsive therapy , is a treatment for major depressive disorder , bipolar disorder, and other psychiatric conditions. ECT is generally offered when other treatments are ineffective or there is a need for rapid response.
ECT has a stigma attached to it from the early days of shock therapy, but the ECT that is available today is very different from what it was like when first administered in 1938.
When ECT was first used, patients would be awake for the procedure and endure a full-body seizure created by an electrical current. In the decades since, scientists and researchers have used the knowledge they have gained about the brain to create a more therapeutic and less traumatic method for treating depression.
Here is an overview of how shock therapy is used today, including what to expect from an ECT session.
Verywell / Danie Drankwalter
More Effective Alcoholism Treatment
New research is fundamentally changing our understanding of both addiction and recovery. Dozens of new alcoholism medications are in preclinical or clinical testing many of them target novel pathways, such as the exaggerated stress response that both humans and animals develop under the influence of alcohol addiction, an amped up version of the typical release of adrenaline and other chemicals when we perceive a threat.
But neither new treatments nor existing drugs are making their way to enough patients, says Mark Willenbring, director of the Division of Treatment and Recovery Research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. An antirelapse drug called naltrexone, for example, was approved in the 1990s but is prescribed for only about four percent of those with alcohol dependence. It blocks the brains reward mechanisms, which are often triggered by drinking.
Willenbring is promoting a new system, in which patients are treated by their primary-care doctors in office visits. He says this model will appeal to people who either dont want or dont need lengthy counseling or inpatient programs. Willenbring spoke with Technology Review about what works in treating alcohol addiction.
TR: Whats the biggest problem with the treatments for alcohol dependence available today?
MW: The number-one problem is that so few people with alcohol dependence actually get treatment. Over the lifetime, its probably fewer than 10 percent.
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Why Is Ect Controversial
The use of ECT can be controversial for several reasons:
- It was used unethically in the past. ECT was used far more in the 1950s to 1970s than it is today, and it was used without anaesthetic and often without consent. This has sometimes been shown in films and TV shows, which may not reflect how ECT is carried out today.
- It can sometimes cause memory loss. This is often short-term, but can be longer-lasting as well. See our page on the side effects of ECT for more information.
- Some people are offered ECT without being offered other treatments they may prefer to try first, such as talking therapies for depression.
- Professionals disagree about whether to use it. Some healthcare professionals see ECT as a helpful treatment, while others say it should not be used.
Electroshock Therapy For Internet Addicts China Vows To End It
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HONG KONG At the Addiction Treatment Center in eastern China, more than 6,000 internet addicts most of them teenagers not only had their web access taken away, they were also treated with electroshock therapy.
The center, in Shandong Province, made headlines in September after one of its patients killed her mother in retribution for abuse she had purportedly suffered at the camp during a forced detox regimen.
Now China is trying to regulate camps like the one in Shandong, which have become a last resort for parents exasperated by their childs habit of playing online games for hours on end.
The government has drafted a law that would crack down on the camps worst excesses, including electroshock and other physical punishments. Medical specialists welcomed the law, announced this week in Chinas state-controlled news media, as an initial step toward curbing scandals in the industry.
Its a very important move for protecting young children, said Tao Ran, the director of the Internet Addiction Clinic at Beijing Military General Hospital.
Dr. Tao said that many Chinese parents believe that the effects of electroshock therapy are fleeting. But he had seen several Chinese teenagers return from boot camps that treat internet addiction showing signs of lasting psychological trauma, he said.
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