(Quanta Magazine) – Studies have found that some 50% to 70% of patients with major depressive disorder see their symptoms improve after a course of ECT. In comparison, medications aimed at altering brain chemistry help only 10% to 40% of depression patients.

Still, even after many decades of use, scientists don’t know how ECT alters the brain’s underlying biology. Bradley Voytek, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego, said a psychiatrist once told him that the therapy “reboots the brain” — an explanation he found “really unsatisfying.” (Read More)