Posted by bleauberry on January 29, 2009, at 17:46:48
In reply to Re: ECT for anxiety and personality disorders » bleauberry, posted by mav27 on January 29, 2009, at 6:05:18
> I've been pretty much against the through of ECT myself, my doc has mentioned it a couple times but has left it totally up to me to decide if i want to look into it further. Thing is after 10 years of meds and therapy and sh*t and nothing working i'm starting to think why the hell not just try it since at this rate im close to killing myself anyway.
Well, that does remind me of one bright side to ECT, even when it fails. That is, you may forget a lot of things that you would prefer not to remember anyway. It's almost kind of like starting a new chapter, rather than continuing with the same old endless chapter.
Other options include seeing another one, two, or three doctors. Every one of them has their own unique insight and skill. One may be a lot better than another for you. It doesn't mean you have to abandon your current doc and if your relationship is good then you shouldn't. But on the side, there is nothing wrong with seeking a second and third opinion.
Other options include looking at combinations of drugs that you have not yet done. For example, maybe someone has tried Lexapro and maybe at another time they tried Risperdal+Zoloft, but did they ever try Lexapro+Risperdal? Or maybe, even if someone is not bipolar, did they ever try Depakote? Low dose lithium? Lamictal? What about Nardil and Parnate and Marplan. I mean, someone should not even think about ECT until they've tried all three of those, including adding on Abilify. In combination with any other meds, the STARD study showed that the rarely used meds Pindolol or Buspar served good purposes and should probably be used more often to kick other meds into working.
I know where you are at. I was at the same place. That's how I gave in and ECT looked like hope and a last chance.
It is important to look at major causes of depression too. If you are not responding to a whole bunch of different meds, that itself is diagnostic of something else going on other than psychiatry. Tops on the list would be Lyme. Others would be thyroid, adrenal, heavy metals. When psych meds aren't working, I think it is logical to say, "Hey, ok, I'm missing something here. I need to reconsider the diagnosis and look deeper."
poster:bleauberry
thread:876797
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090104/msgs/877072.html