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Home UMass Memorial Medical Center Our Care Electroconvulsive Therapy
Electroconvulsive Therapy

UMass Memorial Medical Center, located in Worcester, is a leader in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Our team of psychiatrists, anesthesiologists and nurses are highly qualified in administering treatments and caring for patients who undergo ECT.

Some 100,000 Americans have ECT treatments each year. ECT is primarily used to treat patients with severe depression and manic depressive illness, schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder through administering an electroshock lasting several seconds. In addition, people with the following disorders may benefit:

  • Catatonia
  • Delirium
  • Mania
  • Neuroleptic malignant syndrome  

In cases when patients do not respond to medication, ECT improves their condition 80 percent of the time.

Patients typically start with three treatments a week, and then appointments gradually taper off to once every four to six weeks during maintenance. Some memory loss occurs at times but usually returns after treatment.

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