In the most severe state of depression when medications and counseling has failed, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is recommended. In this, the patient needs to be hospitalized for treatment. And when that is the case along with medicines and counseling even electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is used. In this there is application of small amount of electrical current to patient’s brain to produce controlled convulsions.  For those who have stopped responding to or have faced severe side effects of antidepressants, this treatment is apt. There is large amount of release of neurochemicals during controlled convulsions. It is believed that this treatment can provide relief from depression within 1 to 2 weeks time.

In recent years, ECT has advanced a lot. This treatment is given in the hospital and anesthesia is used so that the patient does not have pain. Normally, a patient requires 6-10 sittings. Each controlled seizure lasts for about 20 to 90 seconds. However, something that you must know about this is that there is temporary short term memory loss, but it’s only for a short time, the recovery is fast. Electroconvulsive therapy has helped many people for whom there was no ray of hope. And many patients have benefitted and have returned back to antidepressants.