Electroshock: Healing Mental Illness


Product Description
Electroshock therapy has long suffered from a controversial and bizarre public image, effectively removing it as a treatment option for many patients. In Electroshock, Max Fink, M.D., draws on 45 years of clinical and research experience to argue that ECT is now a safe, painless, and sometimes life-saving treatment for emotional and mental disorders.Dr. Fink traces the development of ECT from its discovery in 1934 followed by widespread use for two decades, to the 1950s when it was largely replaced by the introduction of psychotropic drugs, to its revival in the past twenty years as a viable treatment. He provides actual case studies of patients who have been treated with ECT and illustrates that many disorders--such as depression, mania, catatonia, and schizophrenia--respond well to it. As he explains the whole procedure from preparation to recovery, we see what the patient experiences. Fink also shows how anesthesia and muscle relaxation have refined ECT, minimizing discomfort and reducing risks to a level far lower than those experienced by patients using psychotropic drugs routinely prescribed for the same problems.
Clarifying the many misconceptions surrounding ECT, Electroshock is an excellent sourcebook for patients, their families, and mental health professionals.
Electroshock: Healing Mental Illness Review
I have some hesitation recommending a book on Electro-shock which is so clearly pro-ECT and does not review this very controversial subject with an objective eye, however, having said that, I believe it is a worthwhile book as long as it is read in conjunction with a book that seriously questions the value of ECT and studies the mechanism by which it is assumed to work. Dr. Fink gives some very clear and logical sounding reasons for choosing ECT, but he does not counterbalance thesewith serious looks at the downsides of ECT. I am not an anti-ECT protester, nor an I a pro-ECT advocate. ECT does offer some valuable help to some patients, but, having had ECT myself, I also know that in the case of ECT, the cure can sometimes be worse than the illness. Memory problems are not the only side effect of ECT and Max Fink is remiss in not presenting patient accounts that tell the whole story. Would I choose ECT again? I don't know, (my recovery from ECT has been slow - 2+ years now), but I do know that I wish I had read both a book like Max Fink's ALONG WITH one that talked about the flip side of the coin. One more word of caution - Max Fink makes his living by pushing the ECT button many times a day. It pays better than "talk therapy" and takes less time to provide, so be cautious in viewing Fink's book as an objective or "outside" endorsement of ECT. And remember, that what works for one, may not work for another.
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