Posted by Merci on June 25, 2003, at 9:25:31
In reply to Re: more ECT for treatment resistant depression?, posted by noa on June 23, 2003, at 20:17:10
I don't think that a lawsuit is in order. I was absolutely devastated that the ECT didn't work, and for the first few weeks after the ECT I was dizzy, had headaches, my balance was off, I couldn't put together an eloquent sentence to save my life...and some other quirky things. Those things have mostly cleared up, although I do have some memory loss of events in the week before and during ECT. Believe me, I did lots and lots of research before I decided to go ahead with it - and in terms of side effects, there were no surprises.
I'm still researching, and I just cannot find anything that suggests that going back for more ECT, when the first series did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, is a good idea. It seems as though when ECT works for someone, they start feeling better towards the beginning of their treatment and get progressively better. That didn't happen with me, and I just find it hard to believe that if 3 unilateral and 8 bilateral treatments had no effect, that more treatments would help. I may be naive, or just plain scared. My gut feeling is that if I were to get more treatments and those didn't work either, it would devastate me all over again.
I'm all for holding doctors accountable for their actions, but in this case, it's not anyone's fault that I happen to fall into the 10% of the depressed population who doesn't respond positively to ECT (that's the latest statistic I read, it's accuracy is certainly up for debate). I was fully aware of what I was getting into, based on my own research as well as what the doctors told me. I am feeling a lot more like my old, depressed self now - the side effects have mostly subsided. I still believe that ECT is a great treatment for a lot of people. It just didn't work for me.
poster:Merci
thread:234769
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030624/msgs/236918.html