ECT

Has anyone tried it? What were your results? Right now due to other medical problems my "old stand-by" anti-depression drugs are out of the picture. Waking up another morning feeling like today is not a nice thought.

Believe it or not I talked to 4 doctors yesterday and all agreed my looking into it isn't a bad idea. 2 were neurologists, one internist and my psychiatrist.

Thanks.

Hi, I have had 11 ECT treatments for major depression only after all other drugs failed. It has been 5 years since I did ect. Yes, it did help but for me not for very long. Do not let that discourage you because other people do extremely well with it. It is not awful and you are sedated. The only thing I noticed was some memory loss--some of which came back later.

I am about to begin Emsam patches for depression on Saturday. Will keep yoou posted on how that goes. Good Luck and you do have friends here--we care.

Hi Working at it,

It's easy to dismiss ECT because for years it got bad press (and was not handled well by the medical profession). Nowadays it's a much safer and better-monitored procedure, and does wonders for some people for whom meds have done nothing. There's someone on the bp board who's going through this now and things seem to be improving a bit (was not obvious after the first couple of sessions). He's been this route before though and found it very helpful, so we're hoping for the same result from his treatments this round. I think if you have a good doc who talks you through it and monitors your progress closely, it is definitely worth trying. I don't know where the 50/50 chance statistic came from, but I wonder if it reflects how things used to be or how they are now.

Best luck with this.

Rosie x

Thank you very much Elisha and Rosie x. I appreciate it.

So far nobody knows why antidepressants that I once could take make me extremely ill and severely depressed beyond where I started. I have health issues of an adrenal insufficiency now and the med for that uses the same liver pathway as antidpressants. That could be part of it.

The bottom line is who wants to be depressed all the time? If ECT can bring me back...

Dear Bean84,

I am a 46 yr old woman who has been extremely resistent to medication.  I have been on meds for 26 years.  Three years ago I became extremely depressed and tried to hurt myself.  I was hospitalized in a well known New York hospital.  I was feeling pretty "numb" and "dead".  The doctors taking care of me agreed that ECT might be helpful.  I was a my lowest low - so I had 6 treatments (3 x week) - for 2 weeks.  As it sort of seemed archaic and barbaric to me - the doctors explained that to this day, they still do not know exactly how ECT works.

I was given full anesthesia and don't remember any of the treatments.  I experienced some stiffness in my body and had a problem (which occasionally flares up) with the muscles contracting in my right jaw.  Outside of that - I had some memory loss, mostly in the few months after the treatment and it seems to have gradually come back with just a few blank spots.

Was is helpful?  I guess I have to say yes - it did bring me around.  I was alone at the time and with the exception of my doctors and a group therapy I didn't have much of a support group.  ECT is not something people like to talk about and they are usually afraid to hear about it.  There is still a great deal of contoversy about the treatments.  Nowadays, everthing is very closely monitored during the treatments.  It is not like Jack N in cookoo's nest.

I would talk about with your doctors, you family and people whom are close to you that you can trust.  ECT affects everyone differently.  It is helpful to have people around you during the treatment time as you may be a bit "out of sorts".

Only you can really make the decision.  I can say it did help me, but I am still very depressed and still on medication.  Whatever you decide, I hope for the very best for you.