This is almost too obvious to be said but... The brain is REALLYREALLY freaking complicated.
I'm sure ECT can be misused by jerks on power trips, incompetent quacks, and grifters out to make a buck. I also appreciate that some people have suffered from awful side effects from ECT—and other treatments. I don't want to trivialize that at all.
Nevertheless, I want to emphasize that the vast majority of clinicians and researchers are doing the best they can. Depression can be very debilitating and the tools we have for dealing with it are not great. ECT is one of them. It works well for some people but not others, much like many of the drugs and behavioral therapies, and no one really understands why. We would love to have better options, and a lot of very smart, very hardworking people (and me!) have bene working hard to figure out how the brain works, how it can go wrong, and how to restore function when they do.
I'm sure ECT can be misused by jerks on power trips, incompetent quacks, and grifters out to make a buck. I also appreciate that some people have suffered from awful side effects from ECT—and other treatments. I don't want to trivialize that at all.
Nevertheless, I want to emphasize that the vast majority of clinicians and researchers are doing the best they can. Depression can be very debilitating and the tools we have for dealing with it are not great. ECT is one of them. It works well for some people but not others, much like many of the drugs and behavioral therapies, and no one really understands why. We would love to have better options, and a lot of very smart, very hardworking people (and me!) have bene working hard to figure out how the brain works, how it can go wrong, and how to restore function when they do.