Posted by ChicagoKat on October 4, 2012, at 14:09:32
I just want to get a discussion going, get other people's opinions and experiences. I know I should prob post this on the alt. tx site, but it seems no one ever goes there.
In my case, I felt that ect did way more harm than good. It not only didn't help, it made my depression, and especiallly, my anxiety worse. Plus it not only affected my memory, it negatively affected my cognition. And after I had it, my meds stopped working...may be coincidence, may not be. Anyways, after I had it I had to stop working and go on disability. And I had two hospitalizations due to suicidality, which I had never had before.
After I had it I did a lot more research on it, which I wish I had done before I had it. I was so desperate to feel better that I just believed what my doctor told me which was that it was 80-90% efficacious. HA! Everyone I met during my hospitalizations said they wish they had not done it. In my research, I found out things they don't tell you before you go through with it. Of course, there's every chance these findings were wrong or misleading, though they did all come from published articles in well-respected journals. I regret I do not have the references. Anyways, the first thing they don't tell you is that not only does ect affect memory, but that it severely affects cognition. One article mentioned that the IQ of most individuals goes down by 40-60 pts. That's a hell of a lot! I used to have an IQ of 154, which means I am now down to 100. And I feel less intelligent than I used to, which sucks. Another thing they don't tell you is that ect definitely causes brain damage. A study was done with some poor rats; one group was given ect, adjusted to be equivalent to the normal dosages humans receive, the other was not. The rats were then "sacrificed", and they found pinpoint hemorrhages scattered throughout the brains of the rats who had had ect. I forget what the P value was, but it was very low. And it is only natural to believe that the more treatments one has, the more damage is done. Lastly, they don't tell you, at least I wasn't told, that even if it works, the effects don't last, so maintenance treatments are required. Which just means more cost, more memory loss, more cognitive impairment, and more brain damage. I have heard that people who have had ect have had strokes secondary to it later in life. That bit was just something I heard, so I can't say the info came from a peer-reviewed article. But it does make sense given the brain damage that is caused.
OK, my rant is over. As I said, it's just my opinion that ect is dangerous and not as efficacious as claimed. And I don't have the citations to the articles I read. And I know that ect really has helped some people. Like I said, I just wanted to hear other people's experiences and opinions. So please no attacking me for my own opinion. We are each entitled to our own.
Kat
poster:ChicagoKat
thread:1027584
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20121001/msgs/1027584.html