Shock therapy

This article is about the medical term. For use of the term in economics see Shock therapy (economics). For the 1981 sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, see Shock Treatment.

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 and under controlled conditions.

Forms of shock therapy

• Malarial fever therapy involves the inocculation of malarial protozoa into the bloodstream of patients, in order to provoke episodes of intense fever and unconsciousness, and, sometimes followed by convulsions. The method was discovered by an Austrian physician, Julius Wagner-Jauregg in the 1910s, who got the Nobel Prize for his discovery. For a while, it was used for treating the general paresis of the insane, caused by tertiary syphilis. It is no longer used.
• Insulin shock therapy involves injecting a patient with massive amounts of insulin, which causes convulsions and coma. It was discovered by Polish researcher Manfred Sakel in 1933 and was used well until the 50s.
• Metrazol shock therapy involves injecting a patient with Metrazol (cardiazol), a drug that quickly induces powerful seizures. It was discovered by Hungarian researcher Ladislas J. Meduna in 1934. It was soon superseded by electroconvulsive therapy.
• Electroconvulsive therapy involves inducing a grand mal seizure in a patient by passing an electrical current through the brain. It was discovered by Italian researchers Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini. It is still in use today, albeit with restricted indications, such as usually untreatable depression or bipolar affective disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder or anxiety disorders.

Though popular in the first half of the 20th century, chemical therapies are now considered too risky, and only electroconvulsive therapy is used today.

Related topics

• History of mental illness
• Psychosurgery