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This article is about the medical term. For use of the term in economics see Shock therapy (economics)
Shock therapy is the deliberate and controlled induction of some form of physiological shock in an individual for the purpose of psychiatric treatment. Although once common, with advances in psychiatric drugs shock therapy is now reserved for only severe cases of depression and bipolar disorder that do not respond to talk therapy or drug based treatment. Although once used for the treatment of schizophrenia, it is now generally regarded as being ineffective for that purpose.
Doctors have noticed for thousands of years that a person's mental state sometimes changes dramatically following recovery from shock or seizures, whether induced by a head injury, an illness such as malaria, or chemically. Shock therapy is an attempt to produce these same changes artificially.
1 Forms of shock therapy
- Malarial fever therapy involves the inocculation of malarial protozoa into the bloodstream of patients, in order to provoke episodes of intense fever and unconsciousness, and, sometimes followed by convulsions. The method was discovered by an Austrian physician, Julius Wagner-Jauregg in the 1910s, who got the Nobel Prize for his discovery. For a while, it was used for treating the general paresis of the insane, caused by tertiary syphilisSyphilis (historically called lues is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) that is caused by a spirochaete bacterium, Treponema pallidum''. Syphilis has many alternate names, such as: Miss Siff, the Pox, and has been given many national attributions, e.. It is no longer used.
- Insulin shock therapy involves injecting a patient with massive amounts of insulincarbon; green: oxygen; blue: nitrogen; pink: sulphur. The blue/purple ribbons denote the skeleton [-N-C-C-]n in the protein's amino acid sequence H-[-NH-CHR-CO-]n-OH where R is the part protruding from the skeleton in each amino acid. Insulin ( Latin insu, which causes convulsions and comaFor other meanings of the word "coma", especially in astronomy, see coma (disambiguation In medicine, a coma is a profound state of unconsciousness, which may result from a variety of conditions including intoxication ( drug, alcohol or toxins), metabolic. It was discovered by Polish researcher Manfred SakelManfred Joshua Sakel Polish neurophysiologist and psychiatrist, was born on June 6, 1900, in Nadvorna, in the former Austria-Hungary Empire (now Ukraine). Sakel studied Medicine at the University of Vienna from 1919 to 1925, specializing in neurology and in 1933 and was used well until the 50s.
- Metrazol shock therapy involves injecting a patient with MetrazolMetrazol is the commercial trademark of pentamethylenetetrazol, or pentylenetetrazol (PTZ), a drug used as a circulatory and respiratory stimulant (another commercial name is Cardiazol). Larger doses cause convulsions, thus it has been used in shock thera (cardiazol), a drug that quickly induces powerful seizures. It was discovered by Hungarian researcher Ladislas J. MedunaLadislas Joseph Meduna ( 1896- 1964) was a Hungarian neurologist who discovered the first effective drugs for the treatment of schizophrenia. Meduna was born to a well-to-do family in Budapest, Hungary, in 1896. He studied medicine in Budapest from 1914 t in 1934. It was soon superseded by electroconvulsive therapy.
- Electroconvulsive therapyElectroconvulsive therapy also known as electroshock or ECT is a controversial type of psychiatric shock therapy involving the induction of an artificial seizure in a patient by passing electricity through the brain. Researchers remain uncertain as to exa involves inducing a grand mal seizure in a patient by passing an electrical current through the brain. It was discovered by Italian researchers Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini. It is still in use today, albeit with restricted indications, such as usually untreatable depression or bipolar affective disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Though popular in the first half of the 20th century, chemical therapies are now considered too risky, and only electroconvulsive therapy is used today.
