Posted by Zeba on June 2, 2008, at 23:07:57
In reply to Re: ECT report, posted by bleauberry on June 1, 2008, at 19:45:45
Exactly right about the research, and as I said in a previous post, one does not always recognize the problems whilst in the midst of getting ECT. I tried to get my ECT doc to do some follow-up research with patients who had had ECT, and he seemed interested at first and then said he really did not have time. I don't think he wanted to find out that lots of people have memory problems after ECT, and some of it persists indefinitely and sometimes never improves.
I am seeing a neurologist tomorrow and then doing neuropsych testing after. My new pdoc thinks I am having seizures from what I describe (he's anti ECT). He agrees that my memory seems to suck big time now, at least my short-term memory. My husband notices it too. The only good thing about that is that I don't remember movies I saw in the past five years or so, and so it is like seeing a movie for the first time. I watched Clear and Present Danger the other night. I know I saw it in the past, but it was like seeing it for the first time. This is the okay part, but forgetting what I learned in school is not so okay. Some of that has come back, but very slowly. And I still have trouble finding my way from point A to point B even if I did it a million times in the past.
My ECT doc has done some pretty scary things with ECT like give daily bilateral ECT at 100% charge to someone who was highly aggressive. The person got 70 ECT treatments. So the guy is no longer aggressive. I wonder what he is like.
My ECT doc wanted to do bilateral 100% with me too but knew I would never agree and had concerns about how damaged I would be. He said I had cognitive reserve to handle any damage before I got the ECT. What he meant was that I had a very high IQ and could afford to give up 10 or 15 or 20 IQ points and still be able to do my job. He told me this after I quit the ECT. I thought I would throw up at the prospect of what he really wanted to do.
poster:Zeba
thread:832202
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080528/msgs/832617.html