Drug info - When drugs and therapy don't work (Electro Convulsive Therapy: ECT)

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I'm not sure if this really fits in the antidepressants forum, or if it should be under the euphoric body because it's not really about drugs.

I'm studying for a final exam and the last topic we cover is mental disorders and treatment. So I'm wondering if anyone has experienced electroconvulsive therapy after drugs and psychotherapy failed to treat severe depression? My book says:

Electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, is used primarily in cases of severe depression that do not respond to psychotherapy or antidepressant drugs. To the general public this treatment often seems barbaric, a remnant of the days when victims of mental disorders were tortured to exorcise the demons, and indeed it once was a brutal treatment. The brain seizure induced by the shock would cause muscular contractions so violent that they sometimes broke bones. Today, however, ECT is administered in a way that is painless and quite safe (Fink, 2000; Mathew & others, 2005). Before receiving the shock, the patient is given drugs that block nerve and muscle activity so that no pain will be felt and no damaging muscle contractions will occur. Then an electric current is passed through the patient's skull, triggering a seizure in the brain that lasts a minute or so. Usually such treatments are given in a series, one every 2 or 3 days for about 2 weeks.

It goes on into more detail, but I was wondering what that experience must be like? I imagine that such seizures are pretty intense, as the book mentions slight loss of recent memories, and sometimes temporary loss of some older ones, but the neural paths would be similar to that of REM sleep, no?