Myth 50 Misconceptions

Myth 50 focuses on the perceived brutality of Electroconvulsive (Shock) Therapy and the misconceptions associated with it. Studies have found that any Americans both regular and those with medical training have negative beliefs about the effects and uses of ECT. Many believe that is used mainly as a punishment for disgruntled patients in mental institutions and causes nausea and vomiting. ECT is thought to be fatal and potentially fatal with its damages greatly outweighing its benefits (if any at all).

These misconceptions are fueled by two things. Firstly, early forms of ECT were potentially deadly. They produce violent convulsions in which the patient could break bones, shatter teeth, and die; this current misconception had

some backings in the past, but this is not the case today. For the past 50 years, ECT has improved to be much safer and more humane. In western societies than practice ECT, patients who suffer from severe depression or other mania receive an anesthetic and muscle relaxer to prevent movement as the electricity that passes through the brain causes a seizure to help resolve the aliments. The drugs beforehand prevent the patient from moving or being harmed which allows the treatment to beneficially and relatively harmless. Treatment without the drugs is potentially dangerous which occurs in some developing countries.
The second reason that fuels the misconceptions is the media. Famous movies have portrayed ECT as a punishment to violent and disobedient patients in hospitals. It often leaves the patient in a zombie like trance after being tortured which to anymore watching, would seem barbaric and grounds for elimination.
Patients who have experienced ECT have the highest recommendations for the treatment. It is meant to only treat patients suffering with severe depression or other manias that have not reacted to countless therapy and medications (ECT is supposed to be a last option for treatment). Current methods are very safe with a death rate estimated to be 2-10 per 100,000 treatments which is 10x less than that of childbirth. Hopefully teachings of the actual benefits and minimal risk associated with ECT will change the public’s negative thoughts about the treatment and realize how much it helps thousands of people.
Myth 6 focuses on the false belief that playing Mozart’s music to infants can increase their intelligence in the future.

Many parents are under the influence that their child will be better in school and life, increasing their I.Q. scores by listening to Mozart at an early age; any child would want their child to better. This idea first came into light in 1993 with an article describing an improvement in spatial reasoning testing for college students after 10 minutes of listening to Mozart compared to a control group who did not. This study only focuses on one attempt at the test. The study only found that listening to Mozart immediately helped with cognition. However, businesses capitalized on this and began marketing to parents that the “Mozart Effect” can help with mental development in young children, so millions of cassette tapes and CDs were sold to parents under the false pretenses of helping children, when it is a confusion between correlation and causation. Over 70% of Americans including average and psychology students believe that the Mozart effect would increase your intelligence. This belief was so popular that some state governors directed funding to have Mozart played in daycares and other places were infants are heavily

present.
This theory could not be proven in numerous studies. Some studies would have concluded that the “Mozart Effect” worked but these studies could not be replicated again. Some articles would claim that the Mozart Effect is real but did not prove the theory with any actual results. One alternate study would find is a slight increase in performance on mental tasks which can be attributed to the music making one more alert compared to a control group.
Myth 39 focuses on the belief that people with schizophrenia have multiple personalities. Many prominent psychologists explain that schizophrenia is the most misunderstand mental disorder. People often believe the schizophrenia is the same as having multiple personalities also known as dissociative identity disorder (DID). People with DID are described as having two or more separate personalities, but people with schizophrenia are described as having one personality that is fractured with an actual increased likely hood of suicide, depression, homelessness and other issues. Media of course has played into this misconception with several films having a character with multiple personalities disorder but describing the issue as schizophrenia. These movies often reinforce the wrong assumptions about schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia was first coined “split mind” by Eugen Bleuler but this definition allowed the term to be easily confused with DID. Bleuler did not mean a split personality but a splitting of one mind in terms of emotion and thinking. While the rest of the population would think thoughts that correspond to a particular feelings, people with schizophrenia often think thoughts that do not correlate with their emotions.