Posted by SLS on November 30, 2015, at 7:15:29
In reply to Re: Ketamine Nasal Spray Deahoidar » Meltingpot, posted by Deahoidar on November 29, 2015, at 23:09:08
> Like you, I was wowed when I saw the slickly edited YouTube videos and reports of Mayberg's successes with DBS for severe refractory depression. I was deep in the worst depressive episode (#8 I think) I'd experienced. Nothing had worked so I volunteered. Only much later did I learn what I wished I'd known earlier.
> Because it was a double blind clinical trial, a lot was not disclosed but I'm pretty sure they did not perform functional MRI scans. Just basic MRI.
> My surgery went well enough but it soon was clear that I was not receiving stimulation. My mood had (incredibly) worsened and I was on 24 hr suicide watch. Still, they wouldn't break protocol to provide me with any of my antidepressant meds. After the sham stimulation period, I tried to be hopeful but instead, I found my thinking became foggy and distant. I lost all interest. It was anhedonia like I'd never had. I couldn't even remember what it was like to want to do something. I would just sob. And it only got worse as they adjust the settings. I became an empty shell. I felt totally detached from life and things and people around me. I was just an observer. I couldn't experience it.
> Things have improved since I got the DBS removed. But progress has been very very slow and some aspects haven't improved at all.
> It was interesting to read in a recent article that Dr. Mayberg, Dr. Riva-Posse, et al have acknowledged that testing DBS contact points during the operation, with the patient AWAKE, is essential to confirming the appropriate site for stimulation. This is exactly the opposite of how the clinical trials were conducted. No wonder they failed. It also lends support to the possibility that the placebo effect could play a significant role in the "successes". Some experts have contended as much, and DBS researchers do not deny it.
> I wish I'd known all this beforehand. It would have saved me years of grief and suffering.I'm sorry for your lost time and protracted pain.
- ScottSome see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.- George Bernard Shaw
poster:SLS
thread:1083978
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20151119/msgs/1084297.html