What is ECT treatment?

Electro-Convulsive Treatment, it is when seizures are induced by electric shocks to treat mental health illnesses such as Bipolar, severe depression that does not respond to medication, and early stages of Parkinson's.

In the modern version, the patient is given drugs to cause sleep and immobilize the voluntary muscles (so they won't flail about and injure themselves) before the shocks are applied to the brain thru the skull.

Before effective psychiatric medications were available this (and Insulin Shock Treatment, which produces the same effects but by giving a deliberate insulin overdose) were widely used to treat anything and everything as well as being used as punishment when patients made trouble. Patients were awake and restrained with leather straps, often broken bones and other injuries resulted. The treatment acquired a very bad reputation.

However when properly applied in the limited range of situations where it is appropriate it is very effective. Its most common side effect is limited memory loss.