Posted by stargazer2 on February 6, 2008, at 9:09:40
In reply to Re: Those doctors and their Lies* is what I meant., posted by Justherself54 on February 6, 2008, at 8:41:47
I saw so many outcomes with ECT, some good, although I wasn't always sure of this, some bad and some no response.
The biggest problem I had with the treatment was that rather than being truthful with the procedure's outcomes, patients were told it will work and they would get their memory back if they lost it. I wasneercomfortable with giving this information to a patient because it was not always true. Just like chemo is not always successful, I don't think cancer patients are told that it is.
I saw plenty of people not get better with ECT and the ones that did either didn't return for followup or their response was not obvious to me when they said they were better.
I might have given ECT a chance or might if my life was so down that the only other outcome was death, but I feel that some of the medication treatments that MD's shy away from can give you the same chance of recovery. Who knows,have they ever studied this completely?
The biggest problem with ECT is the lack of studies and I wonder if that is intentional. Now that reknowned expert (name escapes me) claims the memory loss is permanent, rather than temporary as he claimed for so many years. I feel this deception was part of the plan to treat as many people as possible without acknowledging the lack of response in some or the persistent memory issues in others.
I have to have the truth before I will submit to anything and my pdoc is always truthful with me. The ECT docs I felt were not, and it was more than just saying it ...it was giving them false hope when truthfulness is the only way to approach any procedure with such varied outcomes.
If it has worked for you and I believe it can pull you out of a deep depression, I'm not sure the long term effects are always successful.
One patient I saw have the procedure, was a dialysis patient, whose kidneys failed from lithium treatment for her depression. She had no other option than ECT. She must have had some response because she was faithful in returning to have maintenance ECT every month. In my opinion, she was still very depressed but being in that medical situation was a large part of her depession. So,everyone has to make their own call for it, some don't even have a choice.
Stargazer
poster:stargazer2
thread:808283
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080124/msgs/811025.html