Electroconvulsive Therapy 1938 – Electrical Stimulation of the Brain

Lawyer Curtis Hartmann describes his experience of electrically triggered brain seizures in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as follows: 

“I woke up about 20 minutes later, and much of the hellish depression was gone. For me, depression is literally an illness that steals me from myself—an illness that forces me to hang myself and then look at my corpse. Fortunately, ECT kept my monster at bay.”

In 1938, the Italian medical researchers Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini began considering human ECT experiments after Cerletti watched the “electrical execution” of pigs in a Rome slaughterhouse. In the early days of ECT, patients did not receive anesthesia or muscle relaxants as they do today, and their seizures were sometimes so powerful that they broke their own bones.

Today, ECT is used to treat severe depression and other disorders that do not respond to medication, without pain. Treatments are usually given several times. ECT is generally thought to provide a temporary “cure,” followed by periodic ECT, often combined with medication. Memory loss for events immediately before or after ECT is a common side effect. These effects are reduced by the brief-pulse currents used today instead of the sine-wave currents of the past. 

In mice, ECT has been observed to increase levels of growth-factor chemicals that encourage new synapse formation.

Although ECT has saved lives, significant side effects have been reported when it is administered by inexperienced personnel. The nurse Barbara Cody writes about the ECT she received in the 1980s: 

“15-20 years of my life were erased; only small fragments have returned. I am also trying to live with the severe cognitive impairments that developed as side effects. Electric shock 'therapy' took my past, my college education, my musical abilities, even my awareness that my children really are my children. ECT is a violation of the soul.”

About the Article Image: The American writer Ernest Hemingway on safari in Africa in 1953. According to biographer Jeffrey Meyers, Hemingway received electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) at least 15 times in December 1960 and was discharged “shattered.” In 1961, Hemingway died by suicide using a shotgun.

Historical Figures Mentioned in the Article: Ugo Cerletti (1877–1963), Lucio Bini (1908–1964)

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