TED演讲:电击疗法如何改变了我(3)

 　　It didn't work very well on the schizophrenics,  在治疗精神分裂症上，电击疗法效果不是很好，

　　but it was pretty clear in the '30s and by the middle of the '40s  但是在30年代和40年代中期，很明显

　　that electroconvulsive therapy was very, very effective in the treatment of depression. 电击治疗对于治疗忧郁症非常非常有效。

　　And of course, in those days, there were no antidepressant drugs, and it became very, very popular. 当然，在那个时候，没有抗抑郁的药，电击疗法就非常普遍。

　　They would anesthetize people,  医生会麻醉患者，

　　convulse them, but the real difficulty was that there was no way to paralyze¹ muscles. 电击使他们抽搐，但是真正的困难是，没办法抑制肌肉抽搐

　　So people would have a real grand mal seizure².  结果患者会有癫痫大发作。

　　Bones were broken. Especially in old, fragile³ people, you couldn't use it. 骨头断裂-特别是老年人，骨质脆弱的人，不能使用这个疗法。

　　And then in the 1950s, late 1950s, the so-called muscle relaxants were developed by pharmacologists, 后来，到了50年代后期，有了肌肉弛缓药，药理学家发明的，

　　and it got so that you could induce⁴ a complete convulsion,  这样就可以施予完整的电击诱发抽搐过程，

　　an electroencephalographic convulsion -- you could see it on the brain waves 脑电图癫痫—你可以从脑波看出来

　　without causing any convulsion in the body except a little bit of twitching⁵ of the toes.  不会引发身体的抽搐，除了一点点的脚趾抽动。

　　So again, it was very, very popular and very, very useful.  所以电击疗法变得非常非常普遍和有效。

　　Well, you know, in the middle '60s, the first antidepressants came out. Tofranil was the first. 到了60年代中期，第一代抗抑郁药盐酸丙咪嗪产生了。

　　In the late '70s, early '80s, there were others, and they were very effective. 至70年代末，80年代初期，又有了其他一些药，这些药都很有效。

　　And patients' rights groups seemed to get very upset about the kinds of things that they would witness. 当时电击治疗患者的权益团体非常不满，抗议他们目睹的一些电击治疗方式。

　　And so the whole idea of electroconvulsive, electroshock therapy disappeared,  所以电休克和电击疗法消失了

　　but has had a renaissance⁶ in the last 10 years. 但是过去的10年里，又复苏了。

　　And the reason that it has had a renaissance  它复兴的原因是，

　　is that probably about 10 percent of the people, severe depressives,  大约10%的人，重度抑郁症患者，

　　do not respond, regardless of what is done for them.  对什么治疗都没有反应。

　　Now, why am I telling you this story at this meeting?  我为什么要给你们讲这些？

　　I'm telling you this story, because actually ever since  我讲这个故事，是因为

　　Richard called me and asked me to talk about as he asked all of his speakers 理查给我打电话让我谈这个，就像他对其他演讲者一样

　　to talk about something that would be new to this audience,  谈一些对观众来说是很新鲜的话题，

　　that we had never talked about, never written about,  一个从未谈过和写过的话题。

　　I've been planning this moment.  我一直在期待这个时刻。

　　The reason really is that I am a man who, almost 30 years ago,  真正的原因是大约30年前

　　had his life saved by two long courses of electroshock therapy.  2个长疗程的电击疗法挽救了我的生命。

　　And let me tell you this story.  让我给你们讲讲这个故事。

1 paralyze   

vt.使瘫痪，使丧失作用，使呆若木鸡

参考例句：

• The fear that you might make a mistake or fail in your efforts can paralyze your progress.担心你可能会犯错或者你的努力将会失败，这会阻碍你的进步。
• The snake uses its venom to stun or paralyze its victims.蛇用其毒液使受害者失去知觉或瘫痪。

2 seizure   

n.没收；占有；抵押

参考例句：

• The seizure of contraband is made by customs.那些走私品是被海关没收的。
• The courts ordered the seizure of all her property.法院下令查封她所有的财产。

3 fragile   

adj.易碎的，脆的，易损坏的，虚弱的，脆弱的

参考例句：

• The old lady was increasingly fragile after her operation.那位老太太手术后身体越来越虚弱。
• This glass disc looks very fragile.这个玻璃盘子看起来很容易碎。

4 induce   

vt.引诱，劝；引起，导致

参考例句：

• The medicine will induce sleep.这种药使人入睡。
• Certain chemicals can induce undesirable changes in the nervous system.有些化学物质能在神经系统中引起不良变化。

5 twitching   

n.颤搐

参考例句：

• The child in a spasm kept twitching his arms and legs. 那个害痉挛的孩子四肢不断地抽搐。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My eyelids keep twitching all the time. 我眼皮老是跳。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 renaissance   

n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴

参考例句：

• The Renaissance was an epoch of unparalleled cultural achievement.文艺复兴是一个文化上取得空前成就的时代。
• The theme of the conference is renaissance Europe.大会的主题是文艺复兴时期的欧洲。