Shock therapy
Shock therapy is the deliberate and controlled induction of some form of physiological shock in an individual for the purpose of psychiatric treatment. Although once common, with advances in psychiatric drugs shock therapy is now reserved for only severe cases of depression and bipolar disorder that do not respond to talk therapy or drug based treatment. Although once used for the treatment of schizophrenia, it is now generally regarded as being ineffective for that purpose.
Doctors have noticed for thousands of years that a person's mental state sometimes changes dramatically following recovery from shock or seizures, whether induced by a head injury, an illness such as malaria, or chemically. Shock therapy is an attempt to produce these same changes artificially.
Forms of shock therapy
- Electroconvulsive therapy involves inducing a grand mal seizure in a patient by passing an electrical current through the brain.
- Insulin shock therapy involves injecting a patient with massive amounts of insulin, which causes convulsions and coma.
- Metrazol shock therapy involves injecting a patient with Metrazol, a drug that quickly induces powerful seizures.
Though popular in the first half of the 20th century, chemical therapies are now considered too risky, and only electroconvulsive therapy is used today.
In economics, shock therapy is a form of economic policy in which there is a sudden decontrol of prices.
