Posted by stargazer2 on January 22, 2008, at 22:44:08
In reply to Re: New study on ECT, posted by bleauberry on January 22, 2008, at 19:24:08
Having worked in ECT, I was always informed that memory loss was short term and it was the newest memories that were disturbed the most. But I was unable to tell patients this with any confidence even when the "experts' kept telling me this was the case. I just knew what patients were telling me was more accurate than what the ECT doctors would say over and over to their patients, as if to convince them the effects were grossly overexaggerated.
Well we should not be surprised that this expert had financial ties to the machines and no long term study had been done in 25 years as he accepted money from the federal govt.
Once again, the doctors who are supposed to "Inflict no Harm" have done it again in the name of big money. and ECT is really BIG money especially for the ECT doc.
I saw many Medicare patients subjected to this procedure when the doctor would convince their families that without ECT, they would just give up and die. Personally I saw that as less of a negative thing than shocking them so that they would eat and live longer even if it meant destroying what little memory they had left. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment...
I have always had a bad taste about ECT and I think it was because I never felt that the truth was being told to patients. It was an instinctual belief for me and from what I saw I didn't see anything that I could endorse honestly based on my gut feelings.
I have always said to my pdoc, "no matter how depressed I get I will never have ECT" and that was because I did not trust what I had heard about memory and results.
I didn't read this whole article but I read enough to make me sick...it conjers up the worst beliefs you might have about the motives of some medical professionals.
Stargazer
poster:stargazer2
thread:808283
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080114/msgs/808448.html