Posted by stargazer2 on October 28, 2007, at 20:32:35
In reply to Re: ECT Shock Therapy Revisted--Please help!, posted by bleauberry on October 28, 2007, at 16:10:02
I too agree with not recommending ECT. I think it is overrated and the MD that did it where I worked would always write in the chart "Pt doing better", even though many of the patients would say they felt horrible. So if a study was done on those patients it would look like they all had good results and I knew this was not true.
And patients that did not want to complete the entire series (12-20 treatments) were always made to feel they were giving up, when they were trying to get out of a situation that was causing them to feel worse.
I saw relatively few patients that would say they were feeling any better. My opinion is that it is overrated and the side effects can destroy your life.
As a result of my experience there (big city, big name hospital)I have said to my pdoc...under no circumstances would I ever consent to having ECT. I have told him what my opinion was of ECT and the doc that performed it.
Another thing, the MD would treat many elderly Medicare patients where there was no limit to the number of treatments they could have (most insurances require prior authorization with a limit to the number of treatments they will allow). I felt this was a cruel thing to put an elderly person through without them really understanding what ECT was. Talk about a demented person losing more of their memories and function. So sad.
That was one of the only places I worked where I could say I didn't believe in the procedure as one I could ever recommend and in many instances I felt it was done for economic reasons and not for the well being of the patients. The doc was never happy unless we had a full load of patients and unless we "processed" them quickly as on an assembly line.
And that's called the best psychiatry can offer?
stargazer
poster:stargazer2
thread:791839
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20071027/msgs/792064.html