When considering ECT, its important to look at the treatment from a biophysics perspective.
the Intricacies of the Vascular & Nervous Systems
The body is comprised of a vascular and nervous system–both of which are on top of the skull but below the skin. Blood has iron in it, which is highly conductive, and nerves were designed to carry current.
So, both the nerves and the vascular system have extremely low resistance, which means they both act as gateways directly into the brainstem.
Understanding Electrical Diffusion in the Human Body
The brain is 72% water, blood has little resistance and is filled with iron, and the trigeminal nerve is directly below the electrode in the most common placement and near enough with nearly an ampere current that the strong electric field spreads across the skin potentially flooding all branches of the trigeminal nerve with 250-450x the amount of current the nerve is designed to carry–so in self-preservation the body diffuses it through the rest of the body–just like in those games they play in science class where the class links hands and then touches someone–that cute experiment uses about 4mA. ECT uses 800 or 900mA, depending on which device is used.
This is called diffuse electrical injury. It’s typically reported in medical case studies of electricians, welders, and others injured on the job by Electricity.
As Dr. Bennett Omalu says, the natural laws governing Electricity’s contact with the human body do not bend for benevolent intent.
So with ECT the electrical current goes not only into the brainstem, but then it’s diffused down the spine into the heart and further down the spine to the toes–which is why the toe twitches during treatment even with the paralytic drugs given to prevent injury from the seizure–the nerve is twitching with the pulsed current.
Psychiatrists don’t understand biophysics
Sadly, Psychiatry has no subspecialty training in biophysics. Yet they choose an ECT dose from one of more than 1,000 possible doses.
Can you imagine getting a prescription from a person for a medicine that they have no understanding of how the medicine or the dose will impact the body? Typically, people cannot write prescriptions unless they go to medical school and pass bio-chem classes, but there isn’t a single medical school that requires biophysics as a course of study.
Uncharted Waters: Navigating Mysterious Side Effects After ECT
Where will you find a doctor who understands how repeatedly subjecting the body to nearly an ampere current impacts the body immediately and as you age? I understand this dilemma because, for two decades, I’ve searched for help with baffling symptoms doctors cannot explain that arose during and after ECT, which are associated with nervous system dysfunction, microvascular system damage, inflammation, unexplained swelling, chronic pain, and a host of cognitive and neurological neurodegenerative problems associated with repetitive traumatic brain injury.
Think on that when considering ECT.
