Relating to a medical treatment that uses controlled electrical currents to induce brief seizures in the brain, primarily used for severe depression and other mental health conditions when other treatments have failed. Modern ECT is performed under anesthesia with muscle relaxants.
Combines 'electro-' (relating to electricity) with 'convulsive' (from Latin 'convulsus' meaning to pull violently together, referring to seizure activity). First developed in the 1930s as a treatment for severe mental illness.
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