Posted by bleauberry on October 15, 2011, at 7:15:32
In reply to ECT advice, posted by jerseygal1 on October 13, 2011, at 17:00:51
I had ECT several years ago. I did a lot of study on it and have direct experience with it. Here is a summary of what I know about ECT, most of which your doctor probably doesn't know or won't tell you.
ECT has an exaggerated success track record. In other words, it doesn't work as good as they would have you believe it does. There are not statistics to back up their claims.
ECT worked for about 2 days for me, right at the 12th and final round. After that I was in an ambulance to the psych ward worse than ever.
When ECT does work it usually doesn't for very long. Poop out is common and can happen in short time.
When ECT does work, drugs are commonly required in an attempt to keep it working. The med journey continues despite win or lose with ECT.
ECT is really expensive even with insurance. My insurance was awesome and paid most of it. But, the small amount of copay I had to pay was still in the multiple thousands of dollars.
ECT is a reasonable treatment for someone so sick they are institutionalized. ECT can at least allow them the possible opportunity to maybe leave the institution and live in a halfway home.
ECt can have serious memory loss issues that do not clear up with time. Mine were, and are, pretty serious. Entire random chunks of my life are completely gone. The part of the brain involved with name recall got totally fried during ECT.
ECT primary benefit in my opinion is that it closes an old chapter and opens a new one. Sometimes we just can't get out of the nightmare chapter we are in without doing something drastic, and ECT can do that. It doesn't necessarily mean ECT will create a better chapter, because I just never saw that happen, but it is a new chapter and that is a good thing because with new comes hope.
If there is memory loss surrounding the time of suffering leading up to ECT, that in my opinion is a good thing. Who would want to remember that crap?
Personally I would take a close look at the meds before thinking of ECT. For example, to revive a pooped out prozac it may have only needed a little bit of nortriptyline or ritalin or madafinil or adrafinil added to it.
I have never really seen remeron do anything really good for anyone. Ever. Except maybe as a sleep med at low doses. In my opinion it is an overglorified potent antihistamine but not an antidepressant except in marketing terms. I've never seen lithium work miracles either, except in cases of anxiety or mania. where it can calm things down pretty good.
If I were you I would be thinking in terms of hitting equally norepinephrine and serotonin. There are no single meds that do that except maybe adrafinil, savella, and parnate. A great combination to do that is Zoloft + Nortriptyline.
I can see where your doctor is going with this and it's pretty common. I don't happen to agree with it. I do not see any attempt here at balancing/supporting both NE and serotonin. I also don't see any attempts here at changing other things that need to be changed....choices of foods, supplements, herbs.
Some doctors don't mind, some doctors appreciate it and like it, but some don't like it.....when you come to their office with your own suggestions. That said, I would walk into the office with several suggestions:
1. Restart prozac but add nortriptyline to it.
2. Restart prozac but add ritalin to it.
3. Zoloft + Nortriptyline
4. Parnate
Pretty much everything else I can think of would, in my opinion, be a waste of time and suffering.I could mention a handfull of beneficial herbs, foods, and vitiamins. Among them, I'll just state the number one choice at the top of the list..... Rhodiola Rosea, with or without meds. Do some research on it, maybe read the book Rhodiola Revolution. I haven't read it but it was written by a psychiatrist who discovered by accident how well it worked with his own patients monotherapy or in med combinations, including his own treatment resistant wife. Every person I've suggested it to (sample size 3) went on to remission in just a couple weeks.
poster:bleauberry
thread:999633
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20111006/msgs/999781.html