SHOCK TREATMENT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 319, 3 August 1945, Page 5

SHOCK TREATMENT

Sir,-My attention has»been drawn to a letter appearing over the signature of the Rev. O. E. Burton in a recent issue of The Listener. Your correspondent expresses concern over "shock treatment" as described by your representative in a previous issue. In some ways perhaps the word "shock" is unfortunate. Actually, there are several forms of "shock" treatment; in some it is carried out by chemical means and in the particular method under review, by electricity. The idea behind all these treatments is to produce a sudden physical upset to the brain and not to create a state of fear or shock to the patient from the psychological point of view. Not all forms of "shock" treatment aim at producing a convulsion. Convulsive treatment has passed the experimental stage and is widely accepted as the treatment of choice in certain forms of mental illness. When the treatment was first used, the convulsions were produced by a drug introduced into the blood stream, but there was a delay of a second or so before the drug was able to reach the brain and during this period the patient experienced some unpleasant sensations. As a result some were apprehensive of the treatment, which was a_ disadvantage. The introduction of the electrical method made it possible for the patient to become unconscious immediately, with the resultant removal of the fear of the treatment. This is an effective answer to the suggestion that the patient is frightened by shock into getting better. Any fear of the treatment militates against success. Combined with "shock" treatment, there is always psychological treatment, and in these cases the two are interdependent. Each form helps the other and many patients owe their short stay in hospital and their recovery to electrical convulsive treatment. This would not be achieved by a treatment based on fear. There is no one method of treating all mental illnesses and it would be quite wrong to lay too much emphasis on either the physical or the psychological methods of treatmenf. Separately and combined each has its place. . It has not been my purpose to go into technical details of the treatment nor its rationale (way it works), but to refute any suggestion that the treatment is based on fear or that it is a short cut. Readers may be assured that the electric convulsive method is a distinct advance in the treatment of mental illness.-

J.

RUSSELL

(Acting Director-General,

Mental Hospitals).