UC Davis Health has expanded treatment options for people with serious mental illness by opening a new\u00a0electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) clinic. It gives people in the greater Sacramento region access to highly effective treatment for severe psychiatric illnesses that have not improved with other therapies. The clinic is located in the state-of-the-art\u00a048X Complex\u00a0on the Sacramento campus.<\/p>\n
ECT is effective treatment for severe mental illness<\/p>\n
Dr. John Onate, who practices both internal medicine and psychiatry at UC Davis Health, is the clinic\u2019s medical director.<\/p>\n
\u201cECT is very effective for the treatment of a variety of severe mental illnesses, such as treatment-resistant depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or catatonia,\u201d Onate said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to expand access to this life-saving treatment to a wider population and to help reduce the stigma surrounding ECT and mental health care in general.\u201d<\/p>\n
ECT is a type of\u00a0brain stimulation therapy\u00a0that has been used for decades, but Onate notes that misunderstandings persist.<\/p>\n
\u201cECT is very safe,\u201d Onate explained. \u201cPatients are under anesthesia throughout the procedure, and our multidisciplinary team carefully monitors them before, during and after treatment. For some individuals who have not improved with other therapies, ECT can offer meaningful symptom relief and restore quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most patients receive between nine and 15 sessions<\/p>\n
ECT is typically delivered as a series of treatments, usually two to three times each week. During each treatment session, a brief, carefully controlled electrical stimulus is delivered to a targeted area of the brain while a patient is under anesthesia. Onate notes the amount of electricity is small \u2014 the equivalent of briefly turning on a small flashlight.<\/p>\n
An ECT session lasts only a few minutes. However, appointments generally take a few hours because patients receive anesthesia and require monitoring before and after the procedure.<\/p>\n
Most patients receive between nine and 15 sessions, although treatment plans are individualized based on a patient\u2019s needs and response.<\/p>\n
UC Davis Health offers hope for hard-to-treat psychiatric illnesses<\/p>\n
The new clinic is part of a broader effort by the\u00a0Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences\u00a0to expand access to advanced psychiatric therapies. The goal is to improve care for patients with treatment-resistant depression and severe mental health conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor individuals with severe depression and other complex psychiatric conditions, ECT can be a highly effective treatment,\u201d said\u00a0Dr. Helen Kales, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. \u201cOpening the new clinic allows us to provide care at an academic medical center with expertise across multiple medical specialties.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the ECT clinic, the department\u2019s\u00a0Advanced Psychiatric Therapeutics\u00a0(APT) Clinic provides\u00a0transcranial magnetic stimulation\u00a0(TMS) and esketamine therapy (delivered as a nasal spray) for difficult-to-treat neuropsychiatric conditions such as major depressive disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want patients to know that if multiple antidepressants and other medications have not helped, other treatments are available at UC Davis Health,\u201d Kales said. \u201cBy focusing on evidence-based therapies that are proven to be effective, we can offer hope grounded in science to people who continue to struggle despite previous treatments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who is a candidate for ECT?<\/p>\n
ECT is for adults 18 and older with serious psychiatric conditions. Research has shown it can effectively treat:<\/p>\n
Bipolar disorder, including depressive and mixed episodes
\nSevere treatment-resistant depression
\nCatatonia that has not responded to other treatment
\nTreatment-resistant Schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder<\/p>\n
Learn more about ECT, including common side effects.<\/p>\n
For information about referrals to the ECT clinic and the Advanced Psychiatric Therapeutic Clinic,\u00a0visit the webpage\u00a0or call\u00a0916-551-2203\u00a0(Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. excluding holidays).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UC Davis Health has expanded treatment options for people with serious mental illness by opening a new\u00a0electroconvulsive therapy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[179,181,23,100,180,121,123,122],"class_list":["post-460079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-community","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}