Electroshock therapy

Electrodes are attached to the scalp of the person and an electrical current is passed through to produce convulsions and unconsciousness. This form of therapy is held to be the most reliable and simple treatment with the least likelihood of unforeseen serious complications, particularly in the case of acute catatonia and severe depression. If the patient has developed a fear of such treatment, particularly in the case of brief stimulus therapy when lower electrical energy is required to produce the shock, it is carried out on the point of waking from drug-induced sleep. Regressive electroshock therapy, where the patient is subjected to several shocks a day for several days, produces a state of non-contact with surroundings, incontinence, inability to feed one's self, and generally slow and uncertain behaviour.

Among the ethical problems raised by this treatment is the desirability of relieving depression as a symptom and then returning the person involved to the same environment in which the depression was generated.