History of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT): history, pioneers, modern use, efficacy, and controversy, one of psychiatry’s most enduring treatments.
ECT
Manfred Sakel
Manfred J. Sakel (1900–1957), Austrian neuropsychiatrist, pioneered insulin coma therapy—an early somatic treatment for schizophrenia, now obsolete
Ugo Cerletti
Ugo Cerletti (1877–1963), Italian neuropsychiatrist, pioneered ECT with Lucio Bini in 1938, reshaping psychiatric care and inspiring early biological psychiatry.
Lucio Bini
Lucio Bini (1908–1964), co-inventor of electroconvulsive therapy, pioneered psychiatric innovation but faced marginalization in later years.
Saved by Electroconvulsive Therapy
Psychiatric illnesses remain among the most mysterious maladies that doctors encounter. This enthralling TED talk by inspiring medical historian and surgeon Sherwin Nuland gives a detailed account of one man's illness.