Posted by Karen44 on January 5, 2007, at 23:04:22
In reply to re: ECT is this a surprise?, posted by SLS on January 4, 2007, at 20:36:07
I looked carefully at Sackeim's most recent study and then went and looked back at previous studies with which he was involved. Why did I do this? Because ECT has been suggested again, and I agreed to talk to an ECT doctor re this. The long and the short of it is that Sackeim's studies have always been flawed in terms of research design, methodology, and any pre and post testing. This holds true for his most recent study where he reluctantly claims that it is true that one may suffer serious cognitive impairments. First, his supposed use of pre and post neuropsychological testing is basically a bunch of crap. As a psychologist I am aware of the best tests to use to determine if there is verbal and nonverbal cognitive impairment. He used some measures that are by far not the best to use. And, some of his measures are one's he made up himself and that have never been validated. While he now suggests that RUL may be the way to go, even his shoddy testing measures showed cognitive impairment. He glosses over this, however, and instead talks about how with RUL one does not see the memory impairments one sees with bilateral. This is to suggest that nonverbal memory is NOT important. Well it is! Added to this, he is now recommending suprathreshold levels for RUL. What does this mean? It means he is recommending people who get RUL get shocked at 6 to 12 times their seizure threshold level. If you don't think that won't cause both verbal and nonverbal cognitive impairments, think again. The man is a disgrace, but what I find more disgraceful is that psychiatrists do not look at the research to assess just how good is it. No, they seem to just blindly follow Dr. Sackeim because he has always been viewed as the definitive expert on ECT. I saw a video of him where he admitted he made up numbers, that some of his statistics are not based on research. And yet he will continue to be cited and viewed as the preeminent expert.
I would have to have certain conditions agreed to before I would submit to ECT. That would be no more than two treatments per week, RUL, low threshold level of no more than 1.5,and no more than one stimulation per treatment. Of folks who have had ECT, I wonder how many of you even know how many times you were jolted to have a seizure per individual treatment session to ensure you had the "proper" seizure. If one has only a partial seizure, then they zap you again and again until they get the seizure they want. This means one could have four seizures in one session,for example. Enough from me now; the whole thing makes me so angry; I have decided no way am I going to risk my career for something that I believe amounts to repeated assaults on the brain.
Karen44
poster:Karen44
thread:719277
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070101/msgs/719731.html