Posted by Phoenix1 on February 5, 2008, at 18:02:41
In reply to To say it should be banned is selfish!, posted by deniseuk190466 on February 5, 2008, at 15:26:52
> Hi,
>
> That really annoys me. To say that "ECT should be banned" is really selfish when it has and does offer some people a renewed chance of happiness. Would you want to deny them that, knowing what you know about depression?
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> I have read of quite a few stories where ECT seems to have literally saved some people lives. When I read those stories I want it myself.
>
> I can understand the bitterness though, I would feel bitter too if It had been sold to me as something that was guaranteed to work and to work for a long time but no psychiatrist has ever tried to persuade me to have ECT, I wish they would as I am sick of hearing negative things about it.
>
> I don't think ECT should be banned but I just wish that they had a way of predicting who would and who wouldn't respond but as always, if you are pretty resistant to the standard meds then there are no ways of predicting what will help.
>
>
>
> DeniseDenise, I agree with you. I think ECT has it's place for drug resistant, refractory depression. Perhaps some pdocs are too quick to recommend it, as it should really be an "end of the line" therapy in most cases. My pdoc threw it into conversation like "if the Nardil doesn't work we can talk about ECT", to which I said, not a chance because I certainly haven't tried everything out there. And I wouldn't even consider it until I felt that every other avenue had been exhausted. But it definitely shouldn't be banned. It may cause permanent damage in some patients, but so do many drugs, and no one would ban them. Look at lots of chemo drugs that cause permanent liver, kidney, nerve damage, etc. They are there because they save lives, just like ECT. It's a risk/benefit analysis. I would rather have minor cognition/memory problems than persistent suicidal depression, which is a life threatening condition, just as I would rather have nerve or kidney damage than die of some horrible cancer... But I would never consider ECT unless I had tried everything else, and my depression was life-threatening.
Phoenix1
poster:Phoenix1
thread:808283
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080124/msgs/810904.html