AN INFORMATIVE SPEECH ON Electroconvulsive therapy

Specific Purpose Statement: To inform my audience about the history and

possible future of Electroconvulsive therapy.

Central Idea:
Depression strikes about 17 million American adults each year--more than
cancer, AIDS, or coronary heart disease. 67 percent of elderly are depressed;
ECT could be a “useful treatment” it is important to know about Electroconvulsive
therapy, including it's history, it's mechanics and it's advantages.

Introduction

I. Depression is a growing concern with more and more people getting it.
II. Many students and people that I know claimed to have a degree of
ongoing depession
III. Elders I work with say "the ignorant ones stay home and busy being
depressed"
IV. 67 percent of elderly are depressed
V. Today, I will share with you some of what I have learned to help you better
understand depression treated with Electroconvulsive therapy; it's history,
it's mechanics, and it's advantages.

BODY

(Connective: Well let’s start off with a brief summary of depression)

0. You might relate depression to your love one breaking up with you
or a significant other leaving you that is basic depression nothing major.
A. Depression is a psychological state that is hard to cure, hard to
live with, and hard to endure.
B. A depressed person lives in a nightmarish world, darkened by
glumness and dulled by unwillingness to act.
C. This devastating and destructive state has a negative impact on
the individual.
D. It drains energy, evaporates optimism and enthusiasm, and
paralyzes hope.
E. It distorts the world and substantially reduces the pleasure of
living.
F. It may lead to repetitive suicidal thoughts that can end in self-
destruction.
G. Depression can be treated with medicine then vocal therapy if
medication doesn't work, but what happens when vocal therapy and
medication both doesn't work
(Connective: To find out that, we need to go to twentieth century Rome.)

I. It's hard to believe that ECT treatment didn't officially exist until just
less than one hundred years ago; it might be hard to believe that it is still used
today.
A. It's discovery a successful method was designed in Rome by
Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini, who was a Italian psychiatrists.
B. On April 11, 1938, a 39-year-old man suffering from a manic
and psychotic episode became the first person in whom a seizure
was safely induced electrically.
C. The team headed by Cerletti and Bini initially applied a current
that did not induce a seizure. A second induction, at a higher
setting, was successful. The outcome of this was three types of
shock therapies, Insulin coma therapy, and Lobotomy
Electroconvulsive Therapy.
D. One of the unexpected benefits of transcranial electroshock
was that it provoked retrograde amnesia, or a loss of all memory of
events immediately after the shock, including its perception.
E. According to E.A. Bennett. 90 % of cases of severe
depression that were resistant to all treatments disappeared after
three or four weeks of ECT.

(Connective: So you might ask how this treatment works?)

II. In recent years we have begun to learn more about the ECT and we
now have a clearer picture its mechanics.
A. To this date there are no real explaination to why ECT works
the way it does.
B. There are many theories on how it work but the four main
theories are; neurotransmitter theory, Anti-convulsant theory,
Neuroendocrine theory and the Brain damage theory.
C. The neurotransmitter theory is a shock works like
antidepressant medication, changing the way brain receptors
receive important mood-related chemicals, such as serotonin and
dopamine and norepinephrine.
D. The anti-convulsant theory says that a shock-induced seizures
teach the brain to resist seizures. This effort to inhibit seizures
dampens abnormally active brain circuits, stabilizing mood.
E. The neuroendocrine theory is that the seizure causes the
hypothalamus, part of the brain that regulates water balance and
body temperature, to release chemicals that cause changes
 throughout the body. The seizure may release a neuropeptide that
regulates mood.
F. Brain damage theory is that a shock damages the brain,
causing memory loss and disorientation that creates a temporary
illusion that problems are gone. Shock supporters strongly dispute
the theory, advanced by psychiatrist Peter Breggin and other shock
critics.

(Connective: Now we know it's why it might work, you are asking yourself how is
it executed?)

III. Here is a short video clip showing and explaining the procedural steps
used to conduct ECT:
(ECT video)

(Connective: It's obvious to see that ECT is a valid choice for clinical depression
so why haven't you heard of it?)

IV ECT have a false reputation of being dangerous but with recent

medical advancement it is easy on the patient as for the doctors.
A. Adverse effects.
1. Headaches
2. Nusea
3. soreness
4. muscle aches
5. confusion
B. Criticisms
1. Mental illness impairs judgment and it is possible that
the patients forgot how sick they were before the
treatment
2. ECT is a painful, humiliating, inhumane procedure
used to control unruly patients in mental institutions
3. Idea of passing electricity through the brain conjures
up the image of the electric chair, a punishment
reserved for societies most monstrous criminals
electroconvulsive therapy often offer results of brain
damage

(Connective: So why do you need to know all of this?)

CONCLUSION

● We are, as a nation, getting older and population growing, and we are the
ones who will be among those of depressed people in the years to come.
 ● From its discovery less than one hundred years ago, and through scientific
discoveries being made today, we are learning more about ECT and it's
advantages
● Compared to medicine and therapy ECT is a relatively cheap treatment
option
● On a personal note, it is important that we learn about ECT so that people
like one of my friend, who was diagnosed with depression two years ago
after trying to commit suicide after medical and therapy, can benefit from
ECT, to make him prosper.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Md, M. F. (2008). Electroconvulsive Therapy: A Guide for Professionals and

Their Patients. New York: Oxford University Press, USA.

. Kneeland, T. W., & Warren, C. A. (2002). Pushbutton Psychiatry - A History of

Electroshock in America (Exploring the Relationship Between Electricity and
Psychiatry). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

Stuart-Hamilton, I. (2007). Dictionary of Psychological Testing, Assessment and

Treatment. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Herrman, H., Maj, M., & Sartorius, P. N. (2002). Depressive Disorders, WPA
Series Evidence and Experience in Psychiatry (WPA Series in Evidence &
Experience in Psychiatry). UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd..