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== '''[[Electroconvulsive therapy]]''' ==
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''by  [[User:Gareth Leng|Gareth Leng]]
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==Footnotes==
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'''Electroconvulsive therapy''' ('''ECT''') is a [[psychiatry|psychiatric]] treatment that involves inducing a seizure in a patient by passing electricity through the brain. ECT was introduced for treating [[schizophrenia]] by the Italian neurologist [[Ugo Cerletti]] in the 1930s, and became a common treatment for mood disorders. While many psychiatrists believe that properly administered ECT is a safe and effective treatment for some conditions, some psychiatrists, former patients, [[antipsychiatry]] activists, and others warn that ECT might harm the patients' subsequent mental state.
 
ECT was a common treatment until the late 20th century, when better drug therapies became available for more conditions. It is now reserved for severe cases of clinical [[depression]] and [[bipolar disorder]] that do not respond to other treatments. When still in common use, ECT was sometimes abused by mental health professionals to punish or control uncooperative patients. Many people came to view ECT unfavorably after negative depictions of it in several books and films, and the treatment is still controversial.
 
In its early days, ECT was given without anaesthesia or muscle relaxants, and patients were often injured as a side effect of the seizure. Now, ECT is given under anaesthesia and with muscle relaxants. ECT without anaesthesia is known as "unmodified ECT", or "direct ECT", and is illegal in most countries.
 
==Current use==
ECT is mainly used to treat severe depression, particularly if complicated by psychosis<ref>{{cite journal | author=Potter WZ, Rudorfer MV | title=Electroconvulsive therapy--a modern medical procedure | journal=N Engl J Med | volume=328 | issue=12 | pages=839–46 | year=1993 | id=PMID 8441434}}; see also [http://consensus.nih.gov/1985/1985ElectroconvulsiveTherapy051html.htm]</ref>. It is also used in cases of severe depression when antidepressant medication, psychotherapy, or both, have been ineffective, when medication cannot be taken, or when other treatments would be too slow (e.g. in a person with delusional depression and intense, unremitting suicidal tendencies). Specific indications include depression accompanied by a physical illness or pregnancy, which makes the usually preferred antidepressants dangerous to the patient or to a developing fetus. It is also sometimes used to treat the manic phase of bipolar disorder and the rare condition of catatonia. In the USA, modern use of ECT is generally limited to evidence-based indications. <ref>{{cite journal | author=Hermann R ''et al.'' | title=Diagnoses of patients treated with ECT: a comparison of evidence-based standards with reported use. | journal=Psychiatr Serv | volume=50 | pages=1059-65 | year=1999 | id=PMID 10445655}}</ref>  Accurate statistics about the frequency, context and circumstances of ECT in the USA are hard to obtain, as few states have laws that require this information to be given to state authorities. <ref>{{cite news | first = Dennis | last = Cauchon | title = Controversy and Questions Shock Therapy: Patients often aren't informed of full danger | publisher = USA Today | date = 1995-12-06 }}</ref>
 
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Latest revision as of 10:19, 11 September 2020

The Irvin pin. The eyes have always been red, but there are urban legends about the meanings of other colors.
A pin from another company, possibly Switlik or Standard Parachute. This style is common in catalogs and auctions of military memorabilia.

The Caterpillar Club is an informal association of people who have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft. After authentication by the parachute maker, applicants receive a membership certificate and a distinctive lapel pin.

History

Before April 28, 1919 there was no way for a pilot to jump out of a plane and then to deploy a parachute. Parachutes were stored in a canister attached to the aircraft, and if the plane was spinning, the parachute could not deploy. Film industry stuntman Leslie Irvin developed a parachute that the pilot could deploy at will from a back pack using a ripcord. He joined the Army Air Corps parachute research team, and in April 1919 he successfully tested his design, though he broke his ankle during the test. Irvin was the first person to make a premeditated free fall jump from an airplane. He went on to form the Irving Airchute Company, which became a large supplier of parachutes. (A clerical error resulted in the addition of the "g" to Irvin and this was left in place until 1970, when the company was unified under the title Irvin Industries Incorporated.) The Irvin brand is now a part of Airborne Systems, a company with operations in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.[1].

An early brochure [2] of the Irvin Parachute Company credits William O'Connor 24 August 1920 at McCook Field near Dayton, Ohio as the first person to be saved by an Irvin parachute, but this feat was unrecognised. On 20 October 1922 Lieutenant Harold R. Harris, chief of the McCook Field Flying Station, jumped from a disabled Loening W-2A monoplane fighter. Shortly after, two reporters from the Dayton Herald, realising that there would be more jumps in future, suggested that a club should be formed. 'Caterpillar Club' was suggested because the parachute canopy was made of silk, and because caterpillars have to climb out of their cocoons and fly away. Harris became the first member, and from that time forward any person who jumped from a disabled aircraft with a parachute became a member of the Caterpillar Club. Other famous members include General James Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh and (retired) astronaut John Glenn.

In 1922 Leslie Irvin agreed to give a gold pin to every person whose life was saved by one of his parachutes. By 1945 the number of members with the Irvin pins had grown to over 34,000. In addition to the Irvin Air Chute Company and its successors, other parachute manufacturers have also issued caterpillar pins for successful jumps. Irvin/Irving's successor, Airborne Systems Canada, still provides pins to people who made their jump long ago and are just now applying for membership. Another of these is Switlik Parachute Company, which though it no longer makes parachutes, still issues pins.

Footnotes