Electroconvulsive therapy

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), formerly known as electroshock therapy and often referred to as shock treatment, is a standard psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in patients to provide relief from psychiatric illnesses. ECT is usually used as a last line of intervention for major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, mania and catatonia. A usual course of ECT involves multiple administrations, typically given two or three times per week until the patient is no longer suffering symptoms. It was first introduced in 1938 by Italian neuropsychiatrists Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini, and gained widespread popularity among psychiatrists as a form of treatment in the 1940s and 1950s.
In western fiction, it is usually depicted as a painful procedure, but in western countries ECT is administered under anesthetic with a muscle relaxant.
Although a large amount of research has been carried out, the exact mechanism of action of...