Bipolar disorder is a serious and lifelong mental illness that comes with dramatic changes in a person’s mood and energy levels. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), it is usually diagnosed in the early adult years, but it can occur during the teenage years, and even in childhood, too. Bipolar disorder can have a severe impact on someone’s life if not treated right, but coping with this disease can be a great challenge even with treatment.
What is electroconvulsive therapy?
Electroconvulsive therapy, or electroshock therapy, is a form of treatment used for severe psychiatric conditions, in cases when drugs and psychotherapy have shown ineffective. It was introduced in the US in the 1930s, and for 30 years numerous people have experienced its positive results. This short-term solution is mostly recommended to people with schizophrenia, severe depression, suicidal thoughts, or psychotic behavior.
The technique is usually performed by trained professionals that include a psychotherapist, an anesthesiologist, and an assistant, either doctor or a nurse. They pass a brief and finely controlled current into the brain through electrodes while the patient is under general anesthesia, which causes brief seizures. The treatment is relatively short – it takes only five to 10 minutes.
The treatments are usually given three times per week. They are covered by insurance in some countries, but mostly not. They cost from $300 to $1000 per session and, having in mind that most people need multiple treatments (from six to 12 therapies), it’s quite clear that medications cost much less than this.
The milder form of bipolar disorder — cyclothymic disorder or cyclothymia — is a lot easier to treat than bipolar disorder with full-blown manic and depressive episodes, because the symptoms almost never reach dangerous levels. People with bipolar I disorder often experience dangerous episodes of mania, and those with bipolar II disorder go through longer periods of depressive mood, which both come with significant impairments that conventional medicine can do nothing about. ECT is sometimes the only way to save someone’s life.
Adverse effects of ECT
On the day a person receives ECT treatment, they may experience common side effects such as:
- Headaches
- Confusion
- Pain in the jaw
- Nausea
- Muscle weakness
This is completely normal because you just had your brain "shocked". As with any procedure conducted under anesthesia, risks of medical complications are present, especially for people with heart conditions.
Sometime during the 1960s, the use of ECT to treat severe mental disorders started to dwindle, because new and effective medications appeared on the market, but also due to bad publicity and many side effects.
Most patients who try the treatment report positive experiences. Even though it’s not a must, memory loss still occurs in many patients, but all of them are warned before the treatment and, according to testimonies, the majority considers memory loss worth the regained control over their lives.
The bottom line
Severe manic or depressive episodes are something that many bipolar patients have to cope with and it can be tough. Even though we often hear how people should just “snap out of it”, it’s not that easy, and unfortunately many of these lives end due to suicide.
Even though ECT is considered relatively safe nowadays, experts still only recommend as a last resort after prescription drugs and psychotherapy have failed, and all patients are warned about the possible memory loss prior to the treatment.
Luckily, statistics are quite favorable when it comes to ECT. According to research, more than a million of people worldwide receive ECT every year, and as many as 80 percent of severely depressed patients have shown improvements. Also, about half of people who go through ECT consider the procedure nothing more unpleasant than a visit to the dentist.
It has to be noted that "shock" therapy is not a long-term cure for any mental disease. If you want to prevent return of the symptoms, it’s recommended to continue with another form of treatment such as medications and/or psychotherapy.