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Is ECT patient-centred?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Caroline Cooper*
Affiliation:
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, Wells Road Centre, Wells Road, Nottingham NG3 3AA, email: Caroline.Cooper@nottshc.nhs.uk
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Abstract

Type
The columns
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2008

At times the balance between understanding patients’ experiences of ill health and the biological models of disease processes can be difficult to achieve. Most healthcare professionals recognise the importance of both the scientific theories of disease and abnormal functioning, but also of ethical issues and the subjective experience of illness. Evidence-based medicine highlights the importance of taking into account three elements: the evidence, patient particulars and patient preference (Reference Haynes, Devereaux and GuyattHaynes, 2002). To ignore any one of these aspects would lead to an approach to care which cannot be patient-centred.

Professor Cawley suggested that ‘psychiatry is more than a science’ (Reference CawleyCawley, 1993), containing an ‘undefined something extra’ in addition to its scientific knowledge and practice. Psychiatry's concern with the uniqueness of each individual, empathy and communication with patients is ‘inevitable and everpresent’.

This is especially important for patients undergoing electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), who not only face the stigma of the treatment but also the potential disempowerment of such a technique, particularly in those cases where it is carried out against the wishes of the patient. The study carried out by Kershaw et al (Reference Kershaw, Rayner and Chaplin2007) was potentially able to address this issue, but unfortunately the researchers did not report whether the patients were being treated voluntarily, nor their attitudes towards ECT before receiving treatment.

References

Cawley, R. H. (1993) Psychiatry is more than a science. British Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 154160.Google Scholar
Haynes, R. B., Devereaux, P. J. & Guyatt, G. H. (2002) Physicians' and patients' choices in evidence-based practice. BMJ, 324, 1350.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kershaw, K., Rayner, L. & Chaplin, R. (2007) Patients' views on the quality of care when receiving electroconvulsive therapy. Psychiatric Bulletin, 31, 414417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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