Electroshock therapy still in vogue despite criticism
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Leena Komarraju, Kolkata: May 14 2008
Made Popular May 14 2008
According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) estimations it has been observed that ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy) or Electroshock has been used in Canada to treat severely depressed patients more than 15,000 times in 2007. This...
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Shiv T shiv379.blogspot.com
London, United Kingdom
Urgjh! I am personally strongly against ECT as I feel it is a vulgar and brute force therapy. A bit like throwing a grenade in a room to kill a fly, it may do the job sometimes but at what cost?

~Shiv
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Jennifer K mayoclinic.com
Rochester, United States
MayoClinic.com has a recent blog posting on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) — and how it can be safe and effective. You can find the post on the Depression blog at MayoClinic.com. (Disclosure: I do some writing for Mayo Clinic, but have not written for this blog.)
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Leena Komarraju
Kolkata, India
It is agreed that ECT is a traumatic form of treatment and it should not be used widely.But when all the other methods fail and saving the life of a person is important there is not much choice left but to go for it. It is just like treating cancer. The side effcets can be very traumatic but we still go for the treatment in order to save the life of the victim.
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Heat V
Cinn, United States
This article references the more outdated ECT methodologies in the beginning of the article, and the graphic further stigmatizes what can be a life saving procedure for some. Clearly the author has not experienced severe depression first hand.

I agree that ECT should be a treatment method of last resort for unipolar depression. However, when all other alternatives are exhausted, there is clinical proof that the procedure can provide relief. Given the alternative of possible suicide, and the impact to the patient’s family ECT can be the best option sometimes.
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Leena Komarraju
Kolkata, India
It seems the commentator heat v has either not understood the essence of the post or has not read it thoroughly before making his/her comments. If you read the post and the author’s comments carefully you will see that the author has suggested that electroshock therapy is safe under expert medical supervision and should be resorted to in the most severe forms of depression when all the other treatments fail and to prevent the patient from committing suicide.
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