Frontiers in Psychiatry presents a review of evidence regarding ECT’s mechanisms of action by Roar Fosse and John Read, concluding that “In considering this evidence, we hypothesize that ECT affects the brain in a similar manner as severe stress or brain trauma which activates the HPA axis and the dopamine system and may compromise frontotemporal functions.”
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Fosse, R., Read, J.; Electroconvulsive Treatment: Hypotheses About Mechanisms of Action. Frontiers in Psychiatry. August 27, 2013: doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00094
Of further interest:
ECT: Hypotheses About Mechanisms of Action (Behaviorism and Mental Health)
“A shock doctor can make more in one hour than a therapist can make in a day.” – Peter Breggin, M.D.
Articles from PsychRights (including several from Breggin):
http://psychrights.org/research/Digest/Electroshock/electroshock.htm
Duane
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Dr. Breggin on Huffington Post blog:
The title of the research paper actually tells the story: “Electroconvulsive therapy reduces frontal cortical connectivity in severe depressive disorder.” The specific area is the “dorsolateral prefrontal cortical region.” This is the same area assaulted by surgical lobotomy. It contains nerve trunks connecting the rest of the brain with the frontal lobes — the seat of our capacity to be thoughtful, insightful, loving, and creative. Think of what it takes to be a person; all of that requires the unimpaired functioning and connectivity of the frontal lobes of your brain.
Full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-breggin/electroshock-treatment_b_1373619.html
Duane
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And how cool is it that Dr. Breggin, a conservative has a Huffington Post blog?
I love this country.
Duane
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Duane, I don’t know why you label Peter Breggin a “conservative.” I see him as a tireless, brilliant and courageous fighter for the rights of “mental patients” over the space of many decades. He worked with John Conyers (a liberal Democrat), and has worked with conservative politicians – all on the basis of finding allies wherever they could be found for the cause he has championed.
Peter doesn’t get nearly the credit he deserves. He and Ginger pretty much single handedly stopped NIMH’s plan to drug black inner city teens to prevent “violence”; he exposed psychiatry’s rampant use of lobotomy; he blew the whistle on psychiatry in general, and on SSRI’s connection to suicide – on and on. He took the full blast of psychiatry’s and PhARMA’s wrath when few besides Thomas Szasz and Lauren Mosher were standing up to the establishment.
So many things Peter has said are now – decades later – being reluctantly acknowledged as true by the establishment. He deserves a place in Huffpost, and on many other platforms as well. I think he and his work get shunned by some because he’s feisty and doesn’t suffer fools well, but a very large part of the progress we see today rests on his shoulders.
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Peter,
In regard to Dr. Peter Breggin, IMO no human being has done more for our cause (since 1954):
http://www.empathictherapy.org/Accomplishments.html
Having received an autographed copy of ‘Wow, I’m an American! How to Live Like Our Nation’s Heroic Founders’ by Dr. Breggin, and having heard him discuss his politics on numerous occasions, it’s obvious to me that he’s a conservative:
http://breggin.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=256&Itemid=120
The term is hardly derogatory. Quite the opposite, in fact, IMO. I was applauding Ariana Huffington for encouraging diversity.
IMO, diversity… real diversity – of thought (including political thought) is something that is quite rare in the field of mental health.
Duane
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I would like to see an ongoing discussion/forum about ECT or electroshock on this website. This has
to be one of psychiatry’s most horrendous interventions.
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