Posted by LostBoyinNC1 on July 29, 2002, at 11:34:14
In reply to Re: Has ECT become the treatment for the wealthy?, posted by Phil on July 29, 2002, at 7:00:56
> ECT is still the most effective AD. Some people now go for once a month maintenance ECT which, I think, keeps them off of AD's.
> Here in Austin, only two doctors do ECT and one is retiring. The other will only do ECT on people over 55. Weird.
> ECT saved a family members ass. It should be more readily available.Yeah...this is what Im afraid of. That I might need ECT someday real bad and it wont be available to me. Either you will have to be rich and affluent to get it or live in a large metro area. The asshole anti-ECT activists are trying to make it harder and harder to get ECT. Most of the anti-ECT activists want to totally ban all ECT. I wonder how many people they scare off and prolong severe illness and disability. Sometimes I wonder if the federal government should be brought into this issue, to stop the anti-ECT verbal terrorist activity which goes online everyday. Many of the websites which claim to provide information about ECT are totally bogus websites, run by mentally ill individuals (many of whome are obviously psychotics in denial of their own mental illness) who have no idea what they are talking about.
Just because ECT used to be abused a lot and the old forms of it messed people up doesnt mean that there isnt a lot to it as far as treating severe depression. Modern ECT is safe and fundamentally different from the type of ECT portrayed in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
ECT isnt used as a form of "behavioral control" anymore like it used to be and like Ive described repeatedly, that the modern form of it you are properly oxygenated and that prevents the breath holding and oxygen deprivation to your brain which was responsible for the brain damage claims back in the old days.
For example I recently found out that ECT is no longer done in the nearby town of Greensboro, NC where I live. Its done nowhere near where I live anymore I found out recently. If I want to have ECT Id have to travel to Winston Salem (almost an hour from me) or Charlotte (over an hour) or UNC or Duke Hospitals (an hour and a half from me). Thats ridiculous. It should be available closer to me than that. What about people who live in truly rural areas who need ECT? What do they do? Die? Committ suicide? Lie around in their own shit cause they cant get out of bed from catatonic depression?
poster:LostBoyinNC1
thread:114079
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020725/msgs/114159.html