Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), formerly known as electroshock therapy, is a psychiatric treatment in which seizures in the brain (without muscular convulsions) are electrically induced in patients to provide relief from mental disorders. Typically, 70 to 120 volts are applied externally to the patient's head resulting in approximately 800 milliamperes of direct current passed through the brain, for 100 milliseconds to 6 seconds duration, either from temple to temple (bilateral ECT) or from front to back of one side of the head (unilateral ECT). [Source: Wikipedia 
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