Electroconvulsive therapy's enduring effectiveness

A Detroit Free Press profile of a Detroit-area woman's struggle with severe depression highlights the role that electcroconvulsive therapy (ECT) sessions, performed at U-M, played in her recovery. For more than 70 years, ECT has been an effective treatment for a number of psychiatric illnesses, and in recent decades it has become an important option for improving symptoms of severe depression in people who have failed to find relief through other treatments, or who need a more rapid response than medications can provide. The article quotes Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Daniel Maixner, M.D., who directs the ECT program at U-M Hospital and is also a Depression Center member.

Read the article here: http://www.freep.com/article/20120304/FEATURES08/203040327/Therapy-electro-shock-treatments-put-depressed-Clarkston-woman-back-on-track?odyssey=nav%7Chead