Posted by bleauberry on April 23, 2010, at 17:24:19
In reply to anyone had ECT?, posted by rjlockhart04-08 on April 23, 2010, at 0:04:39
> I've just heard it's really effective and what does it actually do the patient like in benefiting....
>
> What happens after it?Mileage varies. Whoever told you, or where ever you saw it in writing, that it is really effective, well, you have to be suspicious and take that with a grain of skepticism. If it was so good, wouldn't a lot of people be doing it?
Cost for 12 shocks is about $22,000. With insurance, the copay is still a lot.
I've been through ECT. And I've watched closely every thread where ECT was a topic. Here are some general observations of what is usually reported:
1. Not helpful, severe memory loss of the time leading up to ECT and after ECT with permanent cognitive disability afterward.
2. Helped a lot to pull out of the dumps, but didn't last long, but still better than the hell before. Memory loss varies from mild to severe.
Followups of clinical and case studies show that the response rate of ECT is no better and no faster than medications. When response does occur, the relapse rate is extremely high and usually happens fairly quickly.
ECT does not end the medication game. Medications are still needed in an attempt to maintain response as best as possible, or at least slow down the progression of a relapse.
For those who found ECT helpful, none claimed it was a cure-all. It was...helpful at the time. In my own words, I have symbolically described it as "closing an old chapter and opening a new one, even if the new one is no better than the old one, at least it is a different chapter and I can't remember the old one anyway."
Picture a small town where you know every building, every turn in the main street, and you know how to get anywhere within a 3 hour radius no problem. Now picture driving that mainstreet and looking at a tree or a building and thinking, "that kind of looks familiar like maybe I dreamed it or something, I wonder what's around this next corner, oh, I think that was my street I just passed, not sure, I don't really know where I am." I had to use mapquest to learn my way again. The names of people seems to be my most permanent ECT disability. Name recall is almost impossible, even with people I see everyday at work or friends I've known a long time. Mathematics, I can still add and multiply just fine, but for some reason subtracting is really hard and I now have to use a calculator to do that...I used to get straight A's in math easily.
ECT didn't work for me. My family begged me not to do it, but everyone at the hospital assured me it was safe and effective (safe and effective at making them huge profits with hardly any work). The months leading up to it and the months after, are nearly completely gone. Random bits and pieces here and there are all that's left. Random memories throughout my life are gone, going back several decades, while other random memories are clear as a bell. Weird how ECT is so selective and random at what is destroyed and what is saved.
But it opened a new chapter. A lot of stuff I forgot, I don't mind forgetting. The psych ward, the ECT, the failed meds, the failed pdocs...I don't mind not remembering those. All the tears I shed, all the despair, all the loneliness, I don't mind not remembering.
For anyone contemplating ECT, I think they need to ask a lot of questions based on suspicion and curiosity first. In my opinion, if someone has not blindly tried a couple antibiotics as a way of diagnosing a hidden infection such as Lyme, or Diflucan to uncover a hidden candida problem, or a DMSA urine challenge test for heavy metals, or a complete thyroid panel including antibodies, or the MAOIs Nardil and Parnate, or the combo Zoloft Nortriptyline, well, this person has no business considering ECT. My opinion. ECT is serious stuff. If all of the above have been done, then ECT might be a consideration, knowing full well that even if it works, it likely won't stay that way. Usually.
Mileage varies. I'm just trying to give you a rounded picture. Mine is obviously somewhat biased on the negative side, but still I am trying to show the entire picture. Some people are very glad they did it. It's just that their stories seem outnumbered by the ones that say they wish they hadn't done it. Regardless of the outcome, I have not yet heard anyone say they did not experience a fairly obvious amount of memory loss or cognitive decline.
poster:bleauberry
thread:944650
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100416/msgs/944764.html