Educational reference
Treatment overview
Electroconvulsive therapy is a procedure carried out in hospital under general anaesthetic, in which a brief controlled electrical stimulus induces a short seizure. The person is asleep throughout and receives a muscle relaxant, so there is no convulsion of the kind popular depictions suggest.
It is used for severe depression, particularly where there is a need for rapid improvement - for example where a person is not eating or drinking, or where risk is high - and where other treatments have not worked. It is also used in severe mania and in some cases of catatonia. It is given as a course of treatments over several weeks.
Evidence indicates it is effective in severe depression, often when other approaches have not been. The most common significant side effect is memory disturbance, usually affecting the period around treatment; for most people this improves, though some report lasting gaps.
It requires informed consent and is a decision made with a specialist team.