Posted by Adam on September 5, 2001, at 11:13:59
In reply to About to get ECT...., posted by PhoenixGirl on September 4, 2001, at 17:29:45
Hi, PhoenixGirl,
After a long clinical depression, which probably started in my early teens, but was diagnosed as such only as I approached 20, a 10+ year battle that culminated in my hospitalization, I had ECT. The results were dramatic, and the onset of relief was rapidly achieved. It's one of the best things I ever did.
It does cause memory problems. For me, these were pretty bad. After 8 sessions of bilateral (seizures induced in both hemispheres of the brain) ECT, I spend a week feeling like I was on another planet, and maybe two weeks after that being mildly disoriented and having minor memory lapses. My memory of some events during the course of treatment is completely erased. Since I gather from my writing much of that time was spend bored and unhappy in the psych ward, I'm not missing much, I suppose. The period following the course of treatment just felt surreal. I can't describe it any other way. I just felt my conscious experience of the world around me was altered somehow, but I lack the words to describe it all. It wasn't bad, really, I just felt like a stranger in a strage land, you know? I wonder if part of this was just the existential crisis of going from mind-numbingly, suicidally depressed and anxious to really pretty OK in the span of a week.
I noticed from the list of meds. you gave, that you have never tried an MAOI. I know MAOIs are kind of scary, but they really can be wonderful antidepressants when they work, and sometimes the side-effects are less severe than what you might have experienced on a good number of the other drugs you've taken. From what I understand, before SSRIs became all the rage, the folks at Mass. General (where I was hospitalized, Blake building, 11th floor, or Blake 11 as it is affectionately known) used to have a favorite treatment algorithm for those who landed in their ward: Intense course of ECT followed by Parnate maintanance. I guess this used to be a remarkably reliable strategy. As SSRIs have a better safety profile, few use Parnate or other MAOIs anymore.
I have even read in some places that good response to ECT is not a bad predictor of good response to an MAOI. I'm not a doctor, but I think undergoing a intense course of ECT, as many treatments as is necessary to lift you from depression, followed by an MAOI to maintain antidepressant response is a wise course to take. If the MAOI doesn't work, or doesn't appeal to you, and the ECT was beneficial, you might rather opt to do maintainance ECT, which is commonly monthly, unilateral-seizure treatments.
ECT has been shown to be quite safe. It works better for more people than any other antidepressant. It does cause memory problems, but most who have been treated say the same thing: It's transient, and managable. Nearly all the research on the subject supports this. If you really want to try, I would say you've made a good decision, and don't be afraid.
poster:Adam
thread:77709
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010902/msgs/77834.html