Metrazol convulsive therapy

Domain XVI · Historical, discredited & harmful · Ladislas (László) Meduna · 1934 · Budapest

What it is

Metrazol (in Europe, Cardiazol) convulsive therapy was the first form of convulsive therapy in psychiatry. In Budapest in January 1934 the Hungarian psychiatrist Ladislas (László) Meduna brought on a seizure with a chemical agent in a man in his thirties with catatonic schizophrenia. He began with…

Format

• Information, processing and repair. Give accurate, attributed history. Separate past from present treatment. Process the fear, grief, shame or anger connected to the history. Goal: the client can hold the history without it deciding their care. Move on when the client can make or revisit decisions…
• Format: ordinary individual sessions, family sessions, or liaison with psychiatric teams. Session number and length follow the client's needs and the setting.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Advocacy and follow-up. Support informed-consent conversations, records access, complaints and advance decisions where relevant. Teach colleagues. Goal: lasting agency.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• blame or idealisation. You know it is working when the family can talk about the history openly.
• the therapist taking a side. You know it is working when the client can sum up both views calmly.
• smugness about the present. You know it is working when trainees apply the lessons to current practice.
• rumination or vicarious distress. You know it is working when the interest feels chosen rather than compelled.
• felt pressure from family or staff. You know it is working when the client describes the decision as their own.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.