Hello, I am looking for someone to write an essay on Safety and Efficacy of Electroconvulsive Therapy. It needs to be at least 2000 words.Download file to see previous pages... Currently, ECT is mostl

Hello, I am looking for someone to write an essay on Safety and Efficacy of Electroconvulsive Therapy. It needs to be at least 2000 words.

Currently, ECT is mostly applied in treating catatonia, mania and severe depression that fails to respond to other forms of therapy. According to the 2001 guidelines by the “American Psychiatric Association” (APA), ECT should be indicated in patients that have depression, which results from intolerance or lack of response to antidepressant therapy. The therapy is also indicated in cases where previous ECT therapies have shown little response and in cases that require definitive and rapid response such as suicidal behaviour and psychosis. The introduction of this therapy occurred in 1938 through Bini Lucio and Ugo Cerletti-psychiatrists from Italy. The therapy acquired widespread application in 1940s and 50s in the treatment of psychiatric conditions (Edward, 1997). However, it is good to be cognizant of the fact that the use of seizure induction to treat psychiatric conditions did not commence with Bini and Ugo. The method had actually begun way back in the 16th century, where chemical agents were used to induce seizure in bids to treat psychiatric conditions. The use of metrazol and camphor was first introduced in 1934 by Meduna, J. Ladislas-a Hungarian psychiatrist. The widespread use of chemical agents such as cardiazol to induce seizure in the treatment of psychiatric conditions began after the 1937 international meeting held in Switzerland. The convulsive therapy meeting was organized by Muller-a Swiss Psychiatrist-and it’s proceedings were documented in the “American Journal of Psychiatry.” In spite of being in use for over 60 years, the therapy is still very controversial, perhaps because very little is understood about its mode of action. The controversy has greatly led to a decline in the application of the therapy in the treatment of psychiatric cases, and perhaps this is why it has been relegated to the last resort class for serious cases such as suicide and psychosis, which have failed to respond to other therapies. The designation of its indication is an implication that it either has a greater associated risk, low effectiveness or is rather least understood in terms of action and thus its effectiveness is not easily determinable. For the same reason, it has been made mandatory for practitioners to acquire informed consent from the patient prior to its administration. The numbers of associated side-effects that characterize the therapy such as memory loss are also part of the contributions to the controversy. Amidst the controversy and negative portrayal, there are long-time practitioners that strongly belief in the effectiveness and safety of the ECT therapy. An example is Max Fink, a long-term practicing psychiatrist and author of numerous scientific papers and books on ECT and general psychiatry. In much of his work, Fink portrays the use of ECT as being effective and safe (Fink, 1984). In fact, in 1990 he wrote a letter currently available on http://www.ect.org, where he recommends that the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) should not exclude the indication of ECT for some psychiatric conditions.