Book about ECT
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| Wed, 09-20-2006 - 12:28am |
Since questions about ECT come up every now & then, I thought you might like to see the NAMI book review about a new book on ECT (I'm hoping our local NAMI group is getting one for their lending library either that or the public library, as I'd sure like to read it)
Shock: The Healing Power of Electroconvulsive Therapy is a book that needs to be read by practitioners, consumers, family members, and even policymakers. You may be surprised, rather than shocked.
“There is no treatment in psychiatry more frightening than electroconvulsive therapy” (ECT), sometimes also known as electroshock therapy, the book begins. “There also is no treatment in psychiatry more effective than ECT.”
The authors are Kitty Dukakis, the wife of former Massachusetts governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis, and in her own right, a social worker and advocate for homeless persons and refugees, and Larry Tye, former Boston Globe medical and health reporter, who NAMI honored with an Outstanding Media Award in 2001.
Shock is two books in one, built in alternating chapters. The first is Dukakis’ personal narrative about her long struggle with the drug addiction and alcoholism that masked an underlying bipolar disorder -- which she in recent years has overcome through ECT.


Missy, here's an old post I found--never have tracked down a copy of the book yet.
Here's a link to a discussion with Kitty Dukakis about the book & ECT on Good MOrning America:
http://www.nami.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Whats_New43/The_NAMI_Connection/20065/GMA_Transcript.htm