Shocked: Insider stories about electroconvulsive therapy

ECT, Electroconvulsive or Electroshock therapy, is easily the most controversial treatment in psychiatry. It is given to the most severely ill patients and often achieves startling cures where other treatments have failed. More than half of the patients reach remission within 12 ECT sessions. Behind this dry, anonymous statistic are personal and dramatic stories. Psychiatrist Professor George Kirov shares some of the more unusual and complex cases featuring patients who received this treatment in his clinic. Some were tormented by delusions, some nearly died through suicide attempts or food refusal; a few were written off as hopeless before being given ECT. The reader is not spared the complications that this treatment can involve, such as memory problems and arrhythmias. The stories described here are real, stories of suffering, mental anguish, and triumph.