Posted by bleauberry on November 30, 2008, at 11:08:47
In reply to Ect for melancholic depression: concerns, posted by Nadezda on November 28, 2008, at 13:30:22
There is always something that will work. Some combination. Some augmention. Some medical condition that has been ignored. Something.
I've said it before, just opinion, I believe ECT is a cop-out for doctors who have gambled wrong in their drug choices. ECT is a way to point the finger at the patient instead of the doctor. The doctors have not been creative enough with the meds at their disposal. All too often they stick to only meds within the guidelines of the so-called diagnosis, and seem to ignore that any psychoactive med has the potential to do benefit, even if it has nothing at all to do with the diagnosis according to some man-made (and because of that, flawed) textbook.
TCAs for psychosis. Prozac+Ritalin for Fibromylagia. Parnate for Fibromylagia. Low Dose Naltrexone for autoimmune, fibro, chronic fatigue, MS, Chrohns. Prozac+Zyprexa for treatment resistance. Lexapro+Abilify for treatment resistance. Not to mention, how obvious are Parnate or Nardil, and yet almost universally ignored? I mean, give me all day and I'll fill up this entire page with stuff. Some of it will make sense. Much of it will not. I will show you the actual case reports of someone that was cured or improved dramatically by some creative combination of drugs, in which the drugs were not first choice, or even third choice, they were not drugs for their "so-called" "assumed" diagnosis.
In my opinion the best thing any doctor could say in a tough case is, "Ya know, we humans are flawed, we make mistakes, we are not anywhere near as wise as we think we are, there is more we don't know than we know. We gotta be open minded and creative and try some different stuff."
ECT should be last on that list, or not on the list at all.
As an ECT survivor, my negative bias is obvious, so please consider where that negative bias came from. I not only did ECT, but I have studied it and studied it and studied it. Hundreds of hours. It aint what they say it is, is all I can say to keep it short.
ECT is not a final hope. The best hope is to go back to that prescription pad, and go back to that lab draw, urine draw, and stool draw. Find something. Try something different. Break out of the box. Put the textbook and regular protocols back on the shelf. Those are for the easy straight forward cases. They do not work for the tough ones.
poster:bleauberry
thread:865604
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20081123/msgs/865895.html