Posted by Zeba on June 20, 2009, at 0:55:24
In reply to Re: ECT, posted by Rdragon on June 19, 2009, at 22:36:14
I do not post here much anymore, but the ECT posting caught my attention.
I had ECT, Right unilateral, over two years ago. I had 7 treatments and quit as I was getting really confused and disoriented, and it was not clearing up. I just finished neuropsychological testing and saw a behavioral neurologist. I have cognitive deficts now that have not gottent better like word retrieval problems, slow processing of information, word fluency problems, lots of visual-spatial problems, can't read and retain anything new now for more than 24 hours. I too like someone else have to do mapquest whenever I am going somewhere as I get really disoriented. I have right-left spatial problems, and I could go on. I have been diagnosed with ECT cognitive decline. Lost over 20 IQ points. Not one bit funny.
Believe me if you think you are suicidal now or getting there, think about what it would be like to be suicidal and brain damaged.
I later took Parnate at a higher dose than the Pdoc I had was willing to do. He just kept pushing ECT which I finally gave in to and did. Parnate worked very well for me, and now I am no longer on any antidepressant medications as I have a really good analyst I see. I am also starting cognitive rehabilitation with a neuropsyhcologst/rehab specialist next week.
My neurologist said I had certain vulnerabilities that made me even more susceptible to damage from ECT. These include two concussions when I was younger, a family history of Parkinson's on both sides of my family, and also some other things. He said no one escapes memory deficits from ECT. They will tell you that it is only for the time right before and after the ECT, but they now also are seeing that the new parameters are not necessarily better, and the anesthetics mean you need a higher charge, etc. I had five times the seizure threshold level. I would not recommend that to anyone. Now brain damaged.
Zeba
poster:Zeba
thread:901064
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090611/msgs/902193.html