Traumatic experiences

Sherwin Nuland on electroshock therapy

Well, he said, Can't we try a course of electroshock therapy?

To collaborate with the relevant institutions to complete vulnerability indices.

But it has to be technological, so I'll talk about electroshock therapy.

Where is the concern about the millions who are becoming physically dependent on antidepressants? Where are the protests about the one year olds being treated with antipsychotic drugs?

But, while ECT rarely, if ever, causes clear clinical evidence of brain damage and has not been shown to do so in animal studies, antipsychotic drugs regularly do, in the form of tardive dyskinesia and other syndromes.

Seminars and training courses on trauma policy were organised for both interviewing officials and decision makers.

Although ECT s opponents believe that it causes brain damage, this is difficult to prove. Like antipsychotic drugs, antidepressants, and tranquilizers, ECT has an immediate organic effect.

This reason really is that I am a man who, almost 30 years ago, had his life saved by two long courses of electroshock therapy.

24), after a decade of rapid growth, the economy of Anguilla slowed in 2000 as a result of natural disasters and overall global recession. The Government introduced the Strategic Country Programme 2002 03 aimed at diversifying the economy and preparing it to reduce vulnerability to external shocks.

But, in contrast to psychotropic drugs, there are no marketing departments geared to maximizing ECT.

External experts on interviewing people who may have had traumatic experiences also contributed.

It feels that an amendment to the trauma policy outlined in Chapter 14.2.2 of the Aliens Act Implementation Guidelines 2000 would be reasonable.

Organized psychiatry appears to have little interest in ECT, or is scared of harassment from patient advocates.

Nevertheless, they still face substantial difficulties in participating in services trade, and their exports are particularly vulnerable to external shocks.

In 2001 and 2002 the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) focused in detail on the subject of traumatic experiences and the way in which interviewing officials deal with such matters.

Nor can enduring autobiographical memory disturbances and inability to remember lists be readily attributed to ECT, because ECT is rarely given on its own.

In addition, financial globalization would allow poor nations to smooth out the boom and bust cycles associated with temporary terms of trade shocks and other bouts of bad luck.

In 2003 there was a renewed focus on training interviewing officials in trauma policy and compelling humanitarian grounds', paying particular attention to interviewing techniques.

It sometimes seems that the critics are behaving according to the romantic illusion that if they can just abolish ECT, mental illness will disappear with it.

ECT s critics seem to think that if they do not protest against its use at every opportunity, its advocates will inflict it on people who do not need it.

This visceral focus on ECT has almost certainly led to ever more people ending up on drugs, and ever more brain damage and memory problems as a consequence.

Some of the unease about ECT stems from psychiatry s dark past, when patients in many countries had fewer legal rights than prisoners.

Surgeon and author Sherwin Nuland discusses the development of electroshock therapy as a cure for severe, life threatening depression including his own. It s a moving and heartfelt talk about relief, redemption and second chances.

This is surprising in an era when treatments that work should supposedly be used with some uniformity. In fact, despite a consensus that ECT is the most effective treatment for severe depressive disorder, it comes at the bottom of the list in most treatment regimens for mood disorders.

The failure of ECT s critics to demonstrate what to them seems obvious indicates an active conspiracy to minimize treatment induced problems and to block those who have been injured by treatment from seeking redress.

By the summer of 2008, just before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, oil prices had doubled over the previous 12 months, reaching a peak of 148 a barrel and delivering the coup de grâce to an already frail and struggling global economy buffeted by financial shocks.

These structural changes have put most Latin American economies on a sound footing, reducing their vulnerability to external shocks, such as deceleration in world economic growth, higher international interest rates, and lower commodity prices.

Even for those countries recently benefiting from the recovery of commodity prices, there exist significant structural weaknesses emanating from high dependence on exports of natural resources and low value added products, implying a high vulnerability to external shocks.

There is no dispute that ECT can cause short term memory loss. But critics have found it difficult to demonstrate memory or other cognitive problems that endure beyond three months.

Support bilateral initiatives undertaken by some developing countries for debt cancellation to benefit LDCs and further encourage other developing countries to also undertake similar initiatives to strengthen solidarity with this most vulnerable group of developing countries.

Others disagree, arguing that the mind can protect itself by banishing memories of trauma from awareness, making it difficult for victims to remember their most horrific experiences until it is safe to do so many years later.

But Asia cannot be complacent financial systems remain fragile economies are burdened with high fiscal and current account deficits and Asia remains too heavily dependent on North American and European export markets, increasing its vulnerability to external shocks.

While these figures may be helpful in indicating how countries can harness services trade for development, developing countries remain particularly vulnerable to external shocks over which they have no control, given their over dependence on a limited number of service activities.