Modern Day Treatment for Depression

Joe had suffered from severe depression and in 1994 had undergone electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)–  approximately 10 treatments in a period of 2 weeks–through the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

It was unfathomable to me that shock treatments were still a form of treatment for depression.  Who hasn’t seen or read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and thought that it was a cruel and barbaric form of treatment? And, especially the Mayo Clinic–isn’t that the world leader in health care?  Cutting edge?  How could one of the world’s best medical centers still be doing shock treatments?