ECT, also known as “shock therapy,” was introduced by Italian neurologists Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini as a treatment for psychosis in 1938.
ECT consists of a patient receiving brief electrical pulses or shocks over the scalp while thankfully being completely under anesthesia, usually every other day for a week or two.
Electrodes are attached to a patient's head, and an electric current is passed between them, causing changes in brain chemistry and activity.
For decades, ECT has been a dramatic, last-resort treatment for severe psychiatric disorders.