Using electroconvulsive therapy for depression remains controversial. Dr Max Pemberton examines the evidence.

ECT: Doctors don't know how it works, so why use it?

This is an article by Dr Max Pemberton. It gives a largely favourable view of ECT as currently practised. But in my opinion, the most important sentence is the last one. - It states:

"In a 2001 survey for the charity Mind, 36 per cent of people found it helpful in the short term. In the long term however, 63 per cent said it was damaging."

You will gather that my personal opinion is that the brain should not be interfered with in this potentially harmful way.

A safe and effective way to reduce feelings of depression is to optimise nutrition with good healthy meals, and to avoid salt/sodium and foods containing added salt. (Dieting is notorious for causing depression.) MIND, the mental health charity, recommends a walk in the country as a good, safe, non-medical way of lifting depression, more effective than antidepressant drugs, with all their adverse side-effects.