Sunday, January 2, 2011

Electroshock Therapy

Shortly after beginning our latest book, we often discussed the cruel, inhumane treatment that the patients received in the hospital.  I argued that the treatments given to the the patients were, at that time, thought to be cutting edge and effective.  A few days ago, I stumbled across an intriguing video concerning the modern use of electroshock therapy (ECT), which is also used in the book to treat patients (www.ted.com/talks/sherwin_nuland_on_electroshock_therapy.html - Caution: this video does contain some offensive language, including the F-word, but I included the address because I found it highly educational).  For those of you that do not wish to watch the video, it is a talk delivered by Sherwin Nuland, a man that underwent a series of ECT treatments in the 1970s.  Nuland received the therapy to treat his crippling depression, and he goes as far as to say that ECT saved his life.  Thus, in modern times, ECT is now being used to treat depression - and recent studies have shown it to be quite effective.  Admittedly, ECT does not work quite as well on schizophrenic patients (most of the members of the ward would have likely been schizophrenic in some capacity).  However, a fair number of inmates in the hospital were likely depressed, so the "cruel, inhumane" (as we saw it) ECT treatment probably helped them.  This shocking revelation may not change your view of the hospital's medical staff - most people would likely still see them as primitive and sadistic.  It did, however, illustrate the power of literature to me - propaganda like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest that criticized ECT prevented it from being recognized as a viable treatment option for people suffering from depression.  Ironically, Ken Kesey was trying to reform the treatment of mental patients with this book, but ended up criticizing a therapy that is quite beneficial.  Before this, I had never really considered the possibility that an engaging, well-intentioned book could cause such harm.

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