Electroshock treatment underused
A study shows that Portugal is treating few people with psychiatric illness using electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), popularly known as electroshock, despite response rates reaching 80 to 90 percent in antidepressant-resistant depression.
The research of the Porto Medical School (FMUP), CINTESIS - Health Technologies and Services Research Centre and the Tâmega e Sousa Hospital Centre (CHTS), to which Lusa had access on 14 April, assessed, for the first time, the use of electroshock in people with psychiatric illness admitted to public hospitals nationwide.
The work concluded that treatment with electroshock is being underused in Portugal, despite being proven fast, safe and effective in a number of psychiatric illnesses.