Electroconvulsive therapy

Electroconvulsive therapy or ECT as it commonly referred to is defined as a “medical procedure in which a brief stimulant is used to induce a cerebral seizure under controlled conditions.”(Webster’s, 1462.) This type of therapy has evolved over many, many years. It was actually first noticed by Hippocrates, that malaria-induced convulsions seemed to calm insane patients and give them a little relief. In A.D. 47 Scribonius Largus treated the headaches of the Roman Emperor with electric eels; this is the first known case of using any form of electric therapy to treat an ailment. Even though it didn’t cause convulsions it’s still important to the finding that electrical current is a useful treatment. In the sixteenth century a Jesuit missionary found that the people of Ethiopia believed that using an electric catfish was good to expel devils out of the human body, they found that it tormented the spirits as well as the subjects that these acts were performed on. This is relevant...