Posted by Compucat on July 29, 2002, at 13:50:41
In reply to Re: Has ECT become the treatment for the wealthy?, posted by LostBoyinNC1 on July 29, 2002, at 11:34:14
I've recently become interested in ECT as a treatment, simply because looking back, I probably should have had it in February to kick me out of severe depression (I would say I am about 40% out of this current bout).
So, I have started investigating what is available around my area. LostBoy, I live in the suburbs of a large city in Canada, and I guess I have gotten used to hour long drives to get to any major medical treatment facility *grin*. However, I do understand that having treatments as an outpatient would be pretty challenging regarding travel/support, etc.
I know there is a mental health hospital in my general area (within that one hour drive) that performs ECT (they did it on my Dad years back).I shouldn't speak before I get all of my information, but I am under the impression that the majority of ECT patients there are older.
There is also a university hospital here (again that infamous 1 hour plus drive) that has a mood disorders clinic that takes in (either inpatient or outpatient) a limited number of patients. I am not sure if ECT treatments are performed there though - it's possible that patients may be referred to the mental health hospital instead).
In Canada, with our social health system, I wouldn't say that ECT has become a treatment for the wealthy. However, it seems more and more that in the future there could possibly be a true two-tier health system here, and if that is the case, I assume many different treatments, ECT or otherwise, could become something that requires the patient to pay outside of their government health care plan.
poster:Compucat
thread:114079
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020725/msgs/114183.html