Im not really sure what category to pick for this so I chose medication bc its a treatment but Ive been considering doing ECT I spoke to my pdoc today about it bc Im on so much medication and still having issues. Has anyone done it? What were the results and do you recommend it? For it? Against it? Please enlighten me thanks
Do you experience catatonia? Usually ECT is given only to schizophrenics who fail to respond to clozapine or who experience catatonia. Have you tried clozapine?
I haven’t experienced it, but I have seen it do a lot of good to people who are badly depressed. There was this guy at a mental hospital where I stayed who had tried to commit suicide. They kept him strapped down to a bed for about four months. When they let him up to get a tiny bit of exercise he seemed very listless and barely responsive. Then they gave him ECT and he brightened right up. He was communicative and even cracked jokes. He was still under the auspices of the hospital, but he went out and got a job and held it. I think there was another guy who was badly depressed and who benefitted from ECT. I asked for myself for some compulsive behavior problems I had, but they wouldn’t give it to me.
My father had ECT in the 90s. It helped tremendously. Unfortunately, it was short-lived. He did great for about 18 months, but then regressed. His pdoc at the time tried to get him to go again, but he resisted (he could be a right pain in the ass). A couple years later, he committed suicide. He had bad short-term memory problems immediately following his ECT. I’d say it’s good for treatment-resistant depression (as was his case), but you have to keep going after about a year for more treatments.
No I dont and no i havent
Oh my that is terrible sorry to hear that, and that is what Im trying to stay away from bc Im getting so hopeless with it all I feel like this is my last resort
That gives me some hope that it actually does help
I tried to give myself some ECT by removing the spark plug wire from the lawn mower and adding a length of additional wire to the end of it so that I could press the bare wire against my temple as I pulled on the starter cord. It was just too difficult and dangerous to do by myself, so I gave up on it after a few pulls on the cord with no results.
Bingo. I saw a # of young military patients who were treated with old-school, high-amplitude ECT at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD, decades ago. They were pretty spaced for a while after the tx series, but most (80%?) seemed to wake up from a very painful dream (as in nightmare) state over a few weeks.
Modern ECT is low amplitude and lot less inducive of those sfx.
Well if one of your symptoms is depression, you will qualify if it is severe enough.
Appt it helps, but only in the short term!
So they often give it as a course not just one magical session!
So I’d explore other options first like CBT or other therapy’s and maybe a meds increase or change if your still struggling.
I tried doing it with a stim box I put both pads on my temples but it only really stimulated the muscles and made my eyes twitch lol