@duncan -
A friend of a friend got it for her severe bipolar disorder. It lost her several hours' worth of memory every time, but made her feel 'normal' for two weeks.
Still, she got that recommendation after she'd tried everything there was to try, giving a passel of medications a fair shake, including lithium. She didn't come in with bipolar and the doc went, "well, what do you think about electrocution?"
I had tiny jolts sent into my hip as part of a PT regimen. While it was agonizing for five or ten minutes, the effect on my long-term pain, range of movement, etc was a godsend. When I was at Mayo and they were attempting to test my nerve transmission, they gave me shocks I couldn't tolerate...
...but my neck pain/congested feeling/stiffness disappeared. For someone with ME it was
amazing. I thought, "could I tolerate this once a week?" The answer was NO, but I felt wistful.
They even still use leeches on infected and rotting tissue sometimes.
Many old-fashioned therapies are still useful in certain applications... but it's all about how eagerly and indiscriminately they're used. Every generation of physicians and pharmacists thinks poorly of the generation before, but people weren't
stupider in the past. They found something that worked in some situations and leapt about their practice, sprinkling a bit of it wherever they went, regardless of circumstance. They're still doing so now, just with different treatments. I'm not sure I know anyone who hasn't been offered an SSRI at some point in their lives, for example. I'm including everyone I know who's ever talked to me about their doctors' visits in that statement, not just ME patients.
[Edit - let's cap the electroshock therapy discussion here, guys, that's not what this thread is about.]
-J
