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== '''[[International economics]]''' ==
== '''[[Electroconvulsive therapy]]''' ==
''by  [[User:Nick Gardner|Nick Gardner]] and [[User:Martin Baldwin-Edwards|Martin Baldwin-Edwards]]
''by  [[User:Gareth Leng|Gareth Leng]]  


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'''International economics''' is concerned with the effects upon economic activity of international differences in productive resources and  consumer preferences and the institutions that affect them. It seeks to explain the patterns  and consequences  of transactions and interactions  between  the inhabitants of different countries, including trade, investment and migration.


For definitions of terms shown in italics in this article see the Related Articles subpage.
'''Electroconvulsive therapy''' ('''ECT''') is a [[psychiatry|psychiatric]] treatment that involves inducing a seizure in a patient by passing electricity through the brain. ECT was introduced for treating [[schizophrenia]] by the Italian neurologist [[Ugo Cerletti]] in the 1930s, and became a common treatment for mood disorders. While many psychiatrists believe that properly administered ECT is a safe and effective treatment for some conditions, some psychiatrists, former patients, [[antipsychiatry]] activists, and others warn that ECT might harm the patients' subsequent mental state.


===International trade===
ECT was a common treatment until the late 20th century, when better drug therapies became available for more conditions. It is now reserved for severe cases of clinical [[depression]] and [[bipolar disorder]] that do not respond to other treatments. When still in common use, ECT was sometimes abused by mental health professionals to punish or control uncooperative patients. Many people came to view ECT unfavorably after negative depictions of it in several books and films, and the treatment is still controversial.


====Scope and methodology====
In its early days, ECT was given without anaesthesia or muscle relaxants, and patients were often injured as a side effect of the seizure. Now, ECT is given under anaesthesia and with muscle relaxants. ECT without anaesthesia is known as "unmodified ECT", or "direct ECT", and is illegal in most countries.
The economic theory of international trade differs from the remainder of economic theory mainly because of  the comparatively limited international  mobility of the capital and labour
<ref>[http://www.econlib.org/library/npdbooks/Viner/vnstt10.html "A note on the scope and method of the theory of international trade"   in the appendix of Jacob Viner ''Studies in the Theory of International Trade'' : Harper and Brothers  1937]</ref>.  In that respect, it would appear  to differ in degree rather than in principle from  the trade between remote regions in one country. Thus  the methodology of international trade economics differs little from that of the remainder of economics. However, the direction of academic research on the subject has been influenced by the fact that governments have often sought to impose restrictions upon international trade, and the motive for the development of trade theory  has often been a wish to determine the consequences of such restrictions.  


The branch of trade  theory which is conventionally categorized as "classical" consists mainly of the application of deductive logic, originating with  Ricardo’s Theory of ''Comparative Advantage'' and  developing into  a range of theorems that depend for their practical value upon the realism of their postulates. "Modern" trade theory, on the other hand, depends mainly upon ''empirical analysis''.
==Current use==
ECT is mainly used to treat severe depression, particularly if complicated by psychosis<ref>{{cite journal | author=Potter WZ, Rudorfer MV | title=Electroconvulsive therapy--a modern medical procedure | journal=N Engl J Med | volume=328 | issue=12 | pages=839–46 | year=1993 | id=PMID 8441434}}; see also [http://consensus.nih.gov/1985/1985ElectroconvulsiveTherapy051html.htm]</ref>. It is also used in cases of severe depression when antidepressant medication, psychotherapy, or both, have been ineffective, when medication cannot be taken, or when other treatments would be too slow (e.g. in a person with delusional depression and intense, unremitting suicidal tendencies). Specific indications include depression accompanied by a physical illness or pregnancy, which makes the usually preferred antidepressants dangerous to the patient or to a developing fetus. It is also sometimes used to treat the manic phase of bipolar disorder and the rare condition of catatonia. In the USA, modern use of ECT is generally limited to evidence-based indications. <ref>{{cite journal | author=Hermann R ''et al.'' | title=Diagnoses of patients treated with ECT: a comparison of evidence-based standards with reported use. | journal=Psychiatr Serv | volume=50 | pages=1059-65 | year=1999 | id=PMID 10445655}}</ref>  Accurate statistics about the frequency, context and circumstances of ECT in the USA are hard to obtain, as few states have laws that require this information to be given to state authorities. <ref>{{cite news | first = Dennis | last = Cauchon | title = Controversy and Questions Shock Therapy: Patients often aren't informed of full danger | publisher = USA Today | date = 1995-12-06 }}</ref>


====Classical theory====
''[[Electroconvulsive therapy|.... (read more)]]''
The law of ''[[comparative advantage]]'' provides a logical explanation of international trade as the rational consequence of the comparative advantages that arise from inter-regional differences -  regardless of how those differences arise.  Since its exposition by John Stuart Mill <ref>[http://www.econlib.org/Library/Ricardo/ricP2a.html#Ch.7,%20On%20Foreign%20Trade,%20comparative%20advantage  David Ricardo ''On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation''  Chapter 7  John Murray, 1821. Third edition.(First published: 1817)]</ref> the techniques of neo-classical economics have been applied to it to model the patterns of trade that would result from various postulated sources of comparative advantage. However, extremely restrictive (and often unrealistic) assumptions have had to be adopted in order to make the problem amenable to theoretical analysis. The best-known of the resulting models, the [[Heckscher-Ohlin theorem]] (H-O)
<ref>[http://internationalecon.com/Trade/Tch60/T60-8.php The Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem]</ref> depends upon the assumptions of no international  differences of technology, productivity, or consumer preferences; no obstacles to pure competition or free trade and  no scale economies. On those assumptions, it derives a model of the trade patterns that would arise solely from  international  differences in the relative abundance of  labour and capital (referred to as factor endowments).  The resulting theorem states that, on those assumptions, a country  with a relative abundance of capital would export capital-intensive products and import labour-intensive products. The theorem proved to be of very limited predictive value, as was demonstrated by what came to be known as the "[[Leontief Paradox]]" (the discovery that, despite its capital-rich factor endowment,  America was exporting labour-intensive products and importing capital-intensive products <ref>Wassily  Leontief, ''Domestic Production and Foreign Trade: The American Capital Position Re-examined'' Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. XCVII p332 September 1953</ref>)  Nevertheless the  theoretical techniques (and many of the assumptions) used in deriving  the H-O model  were subsequently used to  derive further theorems. The [[Stolper-Samuelson theorem]] <ref>[http://www.ucd.ie/economic/staff/pneary/pdf/stolpers.pdf The Stolper-Samuelson theorem]</ref> <ref>Wolfgang Stolper and Paul Samuelson ''Protection and Real Wages''' Review of Economic Studies, 9: 58-73. 1941</ref> , which is often described as a corollary of the H-O theorem, was an early example. In its most general form it states that if the price of a good rises (falls) then the price of the factor used intensively in that industry will also rise (fall) while the price of the other factor will fall (rise). In the international trade context for which it was devised it means that trade lowers the real wage of the scarce factor of production, and protection from trade raises it.  Another corollary of the H-O theorem is Samuelson's factor price equalisation theorem <ref> Paul Samuelson: "International Trade and the Equalization of Factor Prices", '' The Economic Journal'' June 1949</ref> which states that as trade between countries tends to equalise their product prices, it tends also to equalise the prices paid to their factors of production. Those theories have sometimes been taken to mean that trade between an industrialised country and a developing country would lower the wages of the unskilled in the industrialised country. (But, as  noted below, that conclusion depends upon the unlikely  assumption that productivity is the same in the two countries). Large numbers of learned papers have been produced in attempts to elaborate on the H-O and Stolper-Samuelson theorems, and while many of them are considered to provide valuable insights, they  have seldom proved to be directly applicable to the task of explaining trade patterns.
 
''[[International economics|.... (read more)]]''


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Revision as of 04:03, 18 February 2012

Electroconvulsive therapy

by Gareth Leng

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment that involves inducing a seizure in a patient by passing electricity through the brain. ECT was introduced for treating schizophrenia by the Italian neurologist Ugo Cerletti in the 1930s, and became a common treatment for mood disorders. While many psychiatrists believe that properly administered ECT is a safe and effective treatment for some conditions, some psychiatrists, former patients, antipsychiatry activists, and others warn that ECT might harm the patients' subsequent mental state.

ECT was a common treatment until the late 20th century, when better drug therapies became available for more conditions. It is now reserved for severe cases of clinical depression and bipolar disorder that do not respond to other treatments. When still in common use, ECT was sometimes abused by mental health professionals to punish or control uncooperative patients. Many people came to view ECT unfavorably after negative depictions of it in several books and films, and the treatment is still controversial.

In its early days, ECT was given without anaesthesia or muscle relaxants, and patients were often injured as a side effect of the seizure. Now, ECT is given under anaesthesia and with muscle relaxants. ECT without anaesthesia is known as "unmodified ECT", or "direct ECT", and is illegal in most countries.

Current use

ECT is mainly used to treat severe depression, particularly if complicated by psychosis[1]. It is also used in cases of severe depression when antidepressant medication, psychotherapy, or both, have been ineffective, when medication cannot be taken, or when other treatments would be too slow (e.g. in a person with delusional depression and intense, unremitting suicidal tendencies). Specific indications include depression accompanied by a physical illness or pregnancy, which makes the usually preferred antidepressants dangerous to the patient or to a developing fetus. It is also sometimes used to treat the manic phase of bipolar disorder and the rare condition of catatonia. In the USA, modern use of ECT is generally limited to evidence-based indications. [2] Accurate statistics about the frequency, context and circumstances of ECT in the USA are hard to obtain, as few states have laws that require this information to be given to state authorities. [3]

.... (read more)

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