Posted by Mark H. on May 12, 2000, at 20:48:39
In reply to For Cam- ECT, posted by Danielle on May 10, 2000, at 23:37:34
Dear Danielle,
I am relieved for your sake and your husband's that he has been hospitalized, which signals the severity of the situation that you have been reporting for weeks. Hospitalization will give him enforced rest and good motivation to work actively towards regaining his mental health. It will also let your family and friends know the seriousness of the situation, and hopefully they will be able to give you more support, too.
I do not believe that your husband has received enough different medication trials to warrant ECT at this time. Doctors want to "do something." The economics and social aspects of the practice of medicine are such that doctors experience a great deal of pressure to escalate treatment in response to patient or family complaints. I have no doubt whatsoever that if I went to my doctor every week complaining of stomach pain (whether I had any medically treatable condition or not), within two months I would be operated upon. To extend my analogy, ECT is what doctors "do" when the patient or family becomes desperate and the medications tried thus far have not yet worked. It may be, however, that your husband simply needs time and freedom from stress, and a chance to find the medications that will work for him, in order to begin his recovery.
The most important thing a spouse can do is to honestly ask herself whether she wants the treatment for him or for herself? It will "change" your husband, but will it make an improvement? You and your doctors can feel that you've "done everything" by giving him ECT treatments, but will it have been the right thing? Unfortunately, few people can answer these questions with any certainty.
Remember that in previous times, "the latest and best medical advice" for depression included throwing depressives into the North Sea for a nice chilly shock, giving them insulin overdoses to induce seizures, and even administering trans-orbital lobotomies, which was a nice way of describing slipping a sterilized icepick around the eyeball, whacking it through a thin part of the skull into the brain, and mushing things up a little bit with a wiggle of the handle. The main proponent of this technique actually won the Nobel prize, although his practices were later discredited as barbaric and bizarre. Just because this is the year 2000 is no reason to assume that ECT is a rational, reasonable treatment if you would rather try something else first -- including chicken soup and bed rest, neither of which has yet been discredited.
On the other hand, if your husband is ready, willing and able to kill himself, and he himself wants to try ECT, then it is an option, however risky, that is certainly better than the alternative. If you're ready to throw it all away, what's a few brain cells and memories?
Are the kids helping you yet? My heart goes out to you.
Best wishes,
Mark H.
poster:Mark H.
thread:33136
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000508/msgs/33320.html