Electroconvulsive therapy is (ECT) is defined by the Mayo Clinic as a procedure in which “small electric currents are passed through the brain, intentionally triggering a brief seizure,” this will ultimately cause “changes in brain chemistry that can quickly reverse symptoms of certain mental illnesses” (Mayo Clinic Staff, “Electroconvulsive…” 1998-2017). ECT has the potential to permanently reverse the effects and even appearance of mental illness in effected individuals. This potential can be overshadowed, however, by the harm ECT has proven to do on the brain.

 

Research done by doctors in Amsterdam back up this claim. As cited in case studies involving elderly individuals, severe mental impairment is “a serious adverse effect [of ECT] that is frequently observed in clinical practice." In the case of an 80-year-old woman, an MRI after her ECT treatment revealed extensive white matter hyperintensities (similar brain-imaging patterns of those who have gone through a stroke or dementia), with medial temporal lobe atrophy (II-III), and no global cortical atrophy (atrophies are the degeneration and ware of cells) (Schiak et. alii, 2015).

 

A simple list of potential side effects of ECT were generated by Dr. Lawrence Park: “adverse reaction to anesthetic agents and neuromuscular blocking agents, alterations in blood pressure, cardiovascular complications, death, dental and oral trauma, pain and discomfort, physical trauma, prolonged seizures, pulmonary complications, skin burns, and stroke” and this does not include memory problems and the aforementioned degeneration of brain matter (Park, 2016). The physical risks of treatments like ECT, therefore, far outweigh the potential good it can do.