The procedure of unmodified ECT was discontinued after the passage of Mental Healthcare Bill-2016 around two years ago
Cuttack: Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), one of the instrumental forms of psychiatric treatment, has been discontinued at the Mental Health Institute (MHI) of SCB Medical College and Hospital (SCBMCH) here for around two years due to infrastructure and procedural hurdles.
Of the 120-bed MHI facility, 60 are for males, 40 for females and the remaining are for children. Everyday more than 200 patients with mental illness visit the largest state-run referral hospital. And most of them are violent, requiring ECT or electroshock therapy. The MHI has been functioning with only one oxygen cylinder, limited facilities and staff for years now, sources said.
Destitute with mental issues availed the procedure for free at SCB. However, the closure of the procedure has forced patients to visit private healthcare facilities which fleece them. “I believe, a few unscrupulous SCB officials take it as a money minting sport and work hand in glove with the private hospitals to divert the patients,” said social activist Achyuta Kumar Sahu, who along with Deepak Acharya, Rabindra Acharya and Chakradhar Sahu, has recently brought the issue to the notice of the Health Secretary, Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Central) and the District Collector.
When asked, SCB MHI’s director Sarada Prasanna Swain, however, assured that the services would be restored within a month. “Earlier, we used unmodified ECT in which patients were subjected to electric shock without anaesthesia. The procedure was, however, discontinued around two years ago following the passage of Mental Healthcare Bill-2016 which mandates the use of modified ECT,” Swain said.
Now, the preparations for offering modified ECT are nearing completion. “A state-of-the-art Operation Theatre (OT) has been built and two modern OT tables have also been procured. This apart, an advanced workstation has been installed to ease the process of inducing unconsciousness,” the MHI director said, adding that they are waiting for the oxygen facility to kick-start the procedure.
What is ECT
ECT is a form of psychiatric treatment that involves inducing seizures with the use of electrical stimulation while a patient is under general anaesthesia. It was first introduced by a pair of Italian psychiatrists in 1938. However, the use of induced seizures to treat mental illness dates back as far as the early 1500s. Today, ECT is still used as a treatment for cases of severe depression, mania, and schizophrenia, although its use remains controversial.