Self-administered electroconvulsive treatment with a homemade device.
Two patients with personality disorder and depression attempted to self-administer electroconvulsive therapy with a homemade device. The patients showed no proper psychopathological improvement after these attempts. Both of the patients' temples were seriously burned, and one of them required skin grafting. Both patients rejected to have reasonable psychosocial support, and followed a cult mental health manual in attempting to self-administer electroconvulsive therapy. To our knowledge, this is only the second report of its kind. The intractable psychopathology, poor interpersonal skills, and misleading information seemed to lead to the self-harm behaviors of our 2 patients.
Adachi
Takuya
T
Department of Psychiatry, Juntendo University Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. adachi_iin@hotmail.com
Masumura
Toshiaki
T
Arai
Minoru
M
Adachi
Naoto
N
Akazawa
Shigeru
S
Arai
Heii
H
D000328:Adult; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000628:therapy; D004565:Electroconvulsive Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000628:therapy; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012648:Self Care; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior