Posted by linkadge on July 19, 2006, at 18:57:27
In reply to Re: Chill out Crazy Horse, posted by Crazy Horse on July 19, 2006, at 10:02:10
That is not a probelm. I am not really out to try and piss people off.
I have encountered a number of people who have had the procedure. Some I met while in the hospital and some I met online and also around the university area.
There is no doubt that ECT can "quell" some forms of severe depression.
The main idea I got from the people I talked to was that it worked well in the short term, but most of them relapsed (without medications) to a state worse than prior. The people I talked to said they felt it was a big mistake because it had affected their jobs and their memories, and the thereaptutic effect against depression was only temporary. One guy said he didn't know who he was for about a month.
One lady said she lost all memories of here children's childhoods and teen years, and said that nothing could be worse.
I'm not trying to make life difficult for people, I just think that its unrealistic to not give to give some stories from the other side of the table.
I think that med-empowered felt the same way. I think he said he had some relatives who did not fair well on ECT.
If you take a drug, and it doesn't work, then you can stop taking it and most things go back to normal. If ECT doesn't work, and suppose you loose something as precious as the memory of your kids' childhood, thats a pretty big price to pay.
You will find psychiatrists who simply refuse to give their patients ECT, based on what they believe about the procedure.
There is not an overwhealming conscensious in the medical community that ECT is a safe procedure. The same thing goes with antidepressants. Antidepressants may not be safe for some children. They may prompt some children to take their lives. For years we were told they were unquestionably safe. Thats really how it can work sometimes. "They" say its safe...well who are "they"?
There are plenty of opponents, and not just shawdy Breggin types of people. The doctor I talked to at the univeristy of Toronto said that nobody had asked him that question before.
He said people had asked him how or why it worked, but nobody had asked him if he thought it was safe.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:667778
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060717/msgs/668369.html