Posted by mattdds on August 25, 2003, at 13:58:16
In reply to Re: rTMS sucess, posted by Psychquackery on August 25, 2003, at 12:39:38
Hello Igor,
I'm a bit put off by what I see as a condescending tone to a lot of your posts. It is pretty apparent that you are a big proponent of ECT, and that is perfectly fine. Everyone has their treatment of choice. I don't think anyone is disputing that ECT is effective. So in a lot of your posts you seem to be beating up a straw man. The problem comes when we tell others that what they are doing isn't as good as what we are using. You seem to be doing this, for whatever reason.
As you have mentioned, ECT is a valid choice for severe depression. But I find it offensive when you imply that nothing else besides ECT is worthwhile. I had severe, drug resistant depression as measured by every type of scale currently used in research (HAM-D, the Beck Depression Inventory, etc.), which responded very nicely to Cognitive Therapy and moderate-dose clonazepam (panic attacks were a large part of the problem).
Now you could argue that my depression wasn't severe, because it didn't necessitate ECT. But that sets up a very arbitrary definition of "severe depression", saying that severe depression only responds to ECT. In my opinion, that would sound a little silly (the statement, not you).
I take it that you had good success with ECT. I am very happy for that. But just because someone does not go straight to ECT when they get depressed does not mean they are "cowards" or "pathetic", as you put it. Even the biggest proponents of ECT will concede that other strategies should be tried first. And sometimes, ECT is just not indicated (panic, social anxiety, dysthymia, schizophrenia). Also, what about the folks with moderate or even mild depression? Let's not minimize their suffering, just because it's not an indication for ECT.
Remember, we're trying to support each other here, not tell them the treatment they're using (and having success with) is worthless.
Thanks,
Matt
poster:mattdds
thread:253579
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030823/msgs/253910.html