Shock treatment may cure depression- new study

Deepika Padukone gave ‘Shock Treatment’ to Depression Patients

New Delhi, March 31: If shock be an effective treatment of depression, Deepika Padukone’s shocking revelation has acted as a treatment of sorts for depression patients.

Close on the heels of Deepika’s revelation, a new study has also emerged that says shock treatment may cure.

Dr. Sameer Parekh, Chairman, Fortis Psychiatry said, ‘Deepak’s revelation that she too had a bout of depression and had to take treatment to get rid of it has two critical components that will go a long way in the treatment of depression. One, anybody can get it; another it can easily be cured. If a depression patient realizes these twin truths, he has already half recovered. Yes, you can well say Deepika Padukone has acted as a ‘shock treatment’ for depression patients.’

When the tinsel beauty ‘exposed’ this chink in her armor, the initial reaction among her fans was that of utter shock. They were like, ‘how can Deepika be vulnerable to depression? Why should she be depressed?’

But depression patients must have taken a long sigh of relief later on. Padukone’s empathy with millions of depression patients, saying, ‘ You are not the only one, I was also like you at some point of time’ has initiated their sure journey on the road to recovery.

According to psychiatrists, depression patients’ thinking that they are only one among a rare few having this state of mind is the most difficult part of the disease. Dr. Amitabh Saha, senior, consultant, Pushpanjali Crosslay says, ‘What Hollywood’s Brook Shield had done a decade ago, Padokone has done today by confessing her depression bout in real life. Both of them have done a world of good to millions of depression patients who would suffer the easily curable disease in silence.’

Dr. Parekh says, ‘Parity with high and famous on this score would now embolden commoners with this condition to come out in the open without hesitation.’

Close on the heels of Padukone shock, a new study has emerged that says that real shock treatment may cure depression. The study that has been published online in the journal of Biological Psychiatry holds that there are many patients of serious depression who do not respond to conventional medication. According to new finding, such patients can be cured by shock therapy.

Study’s first author Shantanu Joshi, an Indian origin assistant professor of neurology at University of California, Los Angeles says, ‘ Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), sometimes referred to as shock treatment, has been shown to be very effective for treating patients with major depression who do not respond well to other treatments.’

He further says, ‘ECT, which has been used for more than 50 years, carries with it a certain stigma. However, within the last decade, advances in anesthesia, electrical stimulation equipment and new evidence about electrode lead placement have improved safety and reduced side effects.’

Dr. Sameer Parekh says, ‘yes of course ECT was first line of treatment for the serious depression patients long ago, say some 30 years ago but its use has increasingly been on decline. It is not obsolete as yet though, more than a dozen and a half of highly influential medicines have come which have effectively eliminated the use of ECT.’