"Electroshock" Insight SBS: Prof Paul Fitzgerald comments on electroconvulsive therapy and developing alternatives

Professor Paul Fitzgerald, Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre, was in the audience at SBS's 'Insght' program hosted by Jenny Brockie, on electroshock therapy (ECT), 24 Sept 2013.  He said that anecdotal evidence was important as well as clinical trial data in evaluating treatments, especially with old treatments that came into use before the development of modern clinical trials. If people say it works for them, respect them and take their word for it.

He also said, "When people are suffering severe depression there's a significant imbalance between the activity in different  areas of the brain, some areas are overactive, some areas underactive, and by stimulating particularly very small areas of the brain it seems that we can kind of reset activity around that circuitry and restore normal activity and hopefully, at the same time, you know, the person's normal mood." http://www.sbs.com.au/insight/episode/transcript/575/Electroshock. Follow Paul or his lab on Twitter at @PBFitzgerald @PsychNeurotech.