ECT can only be carried out by a doctor in a clinic or hospital. For some patients this is an extremely effective treatment.

In this treatment doctors applied an electrical pulse to the scalp. The electrical pulse will only last for a few seconds. The whole procedure has to be under a general anesthetic in order to make it less distressing for patients.

Although this treatment is effective for most depression cases but the benefits only last for a few weeks and it is rarely used for long term treatment. This treatment is usually used for severe depression and is an important relief for most patients.

There are side effects, like short-term memory losses, headaches and muscle aches but until today there are no long term memory losses or any brain damage is proven.

Even though if ECT is successful, with a rate of 90 percent, usually after an entire session of treatment is finished, patients needs to re-start their anti-depressant medication in order to maintain the situation.

The usual number of ECT treatment is somewhere between six to eight sessions. A lot of patients needs subsequent visit and each treatment can only be given in every four to six weeks.

The whole procedure of ECT usually finished in between half a day to one day depends on the subsiding of the anesthesia medications.

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