Electroshock: Healing Mental Illness - Softcover

Max Fink

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195158040 ISBN 13: 9780195158045

Publisher: Oxford University Press USA, 1999

Synopsis

Electroshock therapy (ECT) has long suffered from a controversial and bizarre public image, a reputation that has effectively removed it as a treatment option for many patients. In Electroshock, Max Fink draws on 45 years of clinical and research experience to argue that ECT is now a safe, effective, painless, and sometimes life-saving treatment for emotional and mental disorders. Dr Fink discusses the development of ECT from its discovery in 1934, its acceptance and widespread use for two decades until it was largely replaced by the introduction of psychotropic drugs in the 1950s, and its revival in the past twenty years as a viable treatment now that undesirable side-effects have been largely removed. He provides case studies of actual patients and the testimonies of their family members to illuminate successful responses. Many disorders, such as depression, mania, catatonia, and schizophrenia, respond well to ECT. We learn what the patient experiences, as the author explains the whole procedure from preparation to recovery. He also shows how anaesthesia and muscle relaxation have refined ECT, minimizing discomfort and reducing its risks to a level far lower than many of the psychotropic drugs routinely prescribed for the same problems.
An excellent sourcebook for patients, their families, caretakers, and mental health professionals, Electroshock clarifies misconceptions about ECT. For those who suffer from mental and emotional disorders, it offers a safe and highly effective treatment.

About this title

Review:

In an America long besotted with psychotherapy, Max Fink carried an often lonely torch for the physical treatment of psychiatric disorders... Electroshock is a slim volume, packing a punch of controversy. (Nature)

This book, clearly written, concise, and assertive, should help balance the picture, educating mental health professionals and the general public alike (Forward Magazine)

About the Author:

Max Fink, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology Emeritus at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Attending Psychiatrist at the Long Island Jewish-Hillside Hospital Medical Center. He is the author of Convulsive Therapy: Theory and Practice, Psychobiology of Convulsive Therapy, and other books. He lives in Nissequogue, New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0195158040
• ISBN 13: 9780195158045
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176