Posted by bleauberry on June 15, 2009, at 16:24:43
In reply to ECT, posted by morganpmiller on June 15, 2009, at 3:09:23
I did ECT. 12 sessions bilateral.
Total Cost: $22,000.00
My Co-Pay: $6,000.00
Memory Loss: Had to use mapquest to get around my small town I've lived in for 15 years. 3 months of memory completely gone, 6 months very blurry, and scattered memories from years ago totally gone. I don't recognize faces of people who know me. This happens A LOT, 3 years later.
Cognitive Impact: Significant. Once a straight A student, now a slow fuzzy thinker.
Efficacy: Zero. No better, no worse, just a lot of damage.
Doctor's Comment on ECT: "The brain trauma is similar to what I saw from grenade blasts in Vietnam".
Clinical Studies: Good luck finding any that prove ECT is as good as your doc says it is. Even then, good luck in finding any information...anecdotal or clinical...that shows ECT responders did not relapse within a very short time. Clinical studies that have looked at this show almost universal relapse within weeks to months.
The hype on ECT is real good though. They make it sound so promising. I was suckered into that like many others. Not a single person among the half dozen of us getting ECT at the same time responded.
Medications: Almost all ECT responders still require heavy med combinations to stay well once they get well, and relapse still happens regardless. ECT is not some magical thing that ends the nightmare or ends the med journey.
If someone has not been tested for Lyme with the Western Blot test, been interviewed by a doctor who is Lyme literate, and tried Parnate and Nardil, they have no business whatsover even considering ECT.
I do believe ECT has its place though. For those people who are so mentally ill that they are permanently institutionalized, ECT can help them make enough progress that they can live in halfway houses. ECT is only for people who are so sick they have no attachment to the real world whatsoever, people who can afford to have some damage done as a trade off for some progress in partially rehabilitating them. Note, these people will never be well enough to live on their own, have jobs, raise families, but ECT can at least make their stays in the hospital shorter and less frequent.
poster:bleauberry
thread:901064
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090611/msgs/901150.html