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Thursday, July 7, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS

University set to open 
new treatment center
for psychiatric therapy

Students hold vigil to honor 
the victims of Istanbul attack

The facility will 

specialize in 

electroconvulsive 

treatment

By BAILEY TUCZAK

For the Daily

The University of Michigan Health 

System’s Department of Psychiatry 
is set to open a new treatment 
facility on Monday, July 11 under 
the supervision of Daniel Maixner, 
associate professor of psychiatry and 
director of the Electroconvulsive 
Therapy Program at the University. 
The space will be entirely dedicated 
to the practice of electroconvulsive 
therapy, a treatment created to relieve 
symptoms of patients with varying 
mental illnesses by means of brief, 
controlled seizures.

Once completed, the $3.6 million 

project will have transformed 9,500 
square feet of the old University 
Hospital south wing into an advanced 
treatment suite. What once held 
unused operating rooms will now be 
home to cutting-edge ECT.

According to Maixner, ECT use 

has 
been 
drastically 
increasing 

since the late 2000s, going from 
about 1,000 treatments to more 
than 2,000 treatments in the United 
States per year. However, its use has 
been limited in some states, with 
laws in place that require states to 
incorporate age guidelines and limits. 
In Texas, for example, children under 
the age of 16 are not allowed to receive 
ECT as a treatment method.

The University’s ECT program 

incorporates widespread treatment 
of all ages. Maixner said he does 
not mind the extra paperwork that 
accompanies this variety, because 
depression and mental illness know 
no age.

The move will make the ECT 

treatment more efficient since it 
will combine services that were 
previously separated between the 
first and ninth floor into one area. 
Maixner said this enclosed space 
will help ease the transition between 
rooms for patients, giving them the 
feeling of a more controlled, secure 
environment.

Maixner added that increasing 

the size of the ECT unit will also 
improve the patient experience, with 
quiet and comfortable surroundings 
targeting the specific needs of 
the facility’s patients. Individual 
interview rooms for pre- and post-
treatment care have also been added 
to the program, in which patients 
will complete comprehensive rating 
scales before and after ECT, as well 
as other questionnaires to determine 
the treatment’s success level.

The facility will also be tripling in 

size, which will allow the program to 
treat more than double the amount 
of patients as before, most of whom 
suffer from severe depression.

Maixner said many people with 

depression are reluctant to receive 
treatment, despite the prominence of 
the disease.

“The problem with depression 

is that a third or more of people can 
become 
resistant 
to 
treatment,” 

Maixner said. “So if there’s at any 
given time 15 or 20 million people that 
might have some form of depression 
in the U.S., a couple million people 
have some form of resistance to 
treatment.”

Maixner 
said 
ECT 
induces 

remission 
on 
a 
much 
higher 

percentage 
in 
comparison 
to 

medicine, and it also is an option for 
patients who have tried different 
types of medicine with no success.

“I always try to teach the young 

doctors and students that with 
medications, 
historically 
when 

they’re 
tested 
for 
outcomes 
in 

depression, they’re trying to prove 
that the drug will get you at least 50 
percent better,” he said. “But, you 
know, to me 50 percent better is not 
good enough. You wouldn’t want to 
be half way depressed, right? You just 
wouldn’t want to do that if you don’t 
have to.”

However, according to Maixner, 

one major drawback of ECT is the 
stigma with which it is associated. 
While the term “electroconvulsive 
therapy” may remind patients of 
psychiatric scenes in old movies, the 
doctors urge people not to be so quick 
on their judgments. Maixner said 
ECT has evolved into a safer, more 
trusted method of treatment through 
the decades, and many studies to 
ensure its safety.

HOSPITAL

LAURA/Daily

LSA Junior Humza Shaukat speaks at a candlelight vigil for the victims of an the airport attack in Istanbul on Thursday. 

Ceremony held 
in the Diag to 

remember lives lost

By ISHI MORI

Daily Staff Reporter

About 20 students gathered 

on the Diag Thursday evening 
to participate in a candlelight 
vigil for the victims of a 
terrorist attack on Turkey’s 
Istanbul Atatürk Airport this 
past week.

The 
attack 
occurred 

Tuesday, 
when 
three 
men 

opened fire in the airport 
— 
armed 
with 
guns 
and 

explosives — and dentonated 
their devices, killing a total 
of 44 people. No one has yet 
claimed responsibility for the 
assault, but the three have been 
linked to ISIS. 

The vigil was organized 

by 
the 
Muslim 
Student 

Association, which invited the 
Turkish Student Association 
to also participate. Many at 
the event wore red and white, 
the colors of Turkey’s national 
flag, to demonstrate solidarity 
with the victims and their 
families.

LSA senior Farhan Ali, a 

member of the MSA who led 
the event, said events like these 
are important because they 
show how victims and their 
families are not alone.

“It’s 
important 
to 

commemorate 
the 
lives 
of 

those who were lost through 
the hands of injustice,” Ali 
said. “Doesn’t matter if you’re 
Jewish, Christian, Muslim; I 
think it’s important to always 
say your prayers.”

The 
vigil 
began 
silently 

at about 8:30 p.m. Ali and 
Rackham student Ziah Dean 
led the group in prayer for 
the victims and offered their 
reactions to the attack.

Dean, a member of the 

Muslim 
Graduate 
Students 

Association, said he wanted 
to show through the vigil 
that there is still some good 
left in the world even though 
tragedies like the Istanbul 
airport attack happen often.

“There’s so much going on 

(in the world) that it’s hard to 
come together for every single 
instance in which (attacks) 
happen,” Dean said. “But the 
more often we come together 
(and) 
reflect 
the 
better, 

because it really brings us to 

our humanity of feeling each 
other’s pain even though they 
may be far away. For us to come 
together here and reflect on it 
is important just to remind us 
of the good that we have and 
just being thankful for what we 
have.”

LSA senior Ibtihal Makki, 

also a member of the MSA, 
echoed Dean’s sentiments of 
humanity and compassion.

“I like to come to events like 

these whenever I can,” she 
said. “I’m not Turkish or of 
Turkish descent, but I think it’s 
important to show solidarity 
with other people regardless 
of whether you identify with 
them.”

Rackham alum Selin Nurgun, 

who has family in Turkey, said 
vigils like these give people the 
hope that lets them move on.

“I think it’s important to 

realize that you’re not alone 
because sometimes you can 
be hunkered down by fear and 
sadness, and you can get it 
inside your head and think that 
the world is an awful place,” 
she said. “But when you step 
out of that and come and see 
support and see friendly faces 
of all different shades of the 
world, it’s comforting.”

