Shock therapy has a largely unearned bad reputation in the public mind, as a sort of torture - which it is not. In fact electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), described as a kind of “hard reset,” is extremely effective in treating some of the most intractable forms of mental illness. That it works has been known for perhaps 100 years, why it works has been unclear.
Modern studies of what occurs when the brain is subjected to ECT show them to be twofold. First the shock induces a seizure, what occurs second appears to be more important.
Immediately after a seizure, ECT induces a second major brain event, known as cortical spreading depolarization (CSD), a slow-moving, high-amplitude traveling wave of neuronal depolarization that resets virtually every neuron in its path. A CSD wave is a kind of hard reset for the brain and has the potential to explain many of the clinical effects of ECT.
Recognizing this “depolarization” as the therapeutic event may enable ECT to become more effective, more targeted. It continues to be used.
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As a doctoral student at U of Oregon, my closest friend in the PhD program was a married student with whom I’d worked at Lockheed. His wife developed mental difficulties. The local psychiatric community attempted to control these with medications … and failed.
They recommended he take her to the state mental hospital in Salem some 65 miles north of Eugene, and this he did. I drove them to Salem in my VW, and brought him back home.
Over the next several weeks the state hospital administered ECT which worked. She was able to come home to married student housing and carry on with being the wife of a hard-studying grad student.
I wish I could tell you it was a permanent “cure,” but it was not. Her problems recurred over the next decades, during most of which she did not require hospitalization.
They recommended he take her to the state mental hospital in Salem some 65 miles north of Eugene, and this he did. I drove them to Salem in my VW, and brought him back home.
Over the next several weeks the state hospital administered ECT which worked. She was able to come home to married student housing and carry on with being the wife of a hard-studying grad student.
I wish I could tell you it was a permanent “cure,” but it was not. Her problems recurred over the next decades, during most of which she did not require hospitalization.
I guess if I were to attempt an IT analogy, the mind can be "rebooted" with ECT but doing so does not guarantee it won't become corrupted again.
