FAQ's
Can ECT be used to treat drug addiction?
Yes, but with some conditions and side-effects. For example, if you are addicted to heroin or crack, ECT would have to be used in combination with longer lasting chemical restraints and sedation. In a hypothetical situation, a crack addict wants to kick so used properly, ECT would erase memories of withdrawal and if we go back far enough, memories of use and any enjoyment. Ideally these memories will be unrecoverable, but there is no way to limit the memory loss to drug use, so for example if your drug use goes back to when you were a teenager, you might not remember graduating high school (as in ever again). In theory, you could submit for ECT and wake up clean with a big fuzzy hole in your memory and absolutely no clue that you ever used drugs at all. When we finished, you would neither remember the treatments nor the withdrawal period. You would simply wake up a new person. |