Posted by alexandra_k on October 18, 2013, at 15:49:43
In reply to Re: Were you a ECT horror story? » alexandra_k, posted by doxogenic boy on October 18, 2013, at 14:50:09
> > thinking about the memory loss aspect of ect perhaps being the mechanism of action rather than a side-effect.
> Yes, I think this the case. Depressed people often think about the same things over and over again. When ECT deletes the repeating thoughts, the depression is gone. The problem is that it deletes much more than just the worries. I have got both retrograde and anterograde amnesia because of the ECT.ONE theory of depression is that the repeating thoughts is a causal factor in depression. Another idea (that is consistent, but somewhat different) is the idea that ... Pretty sure I read 'three months' from somewhere (but I don't know from where so I'm certainly not claiming it as authorative) ... If you can interrupt memory for around 3 months prior to the treatment ... That might be the effective thing. Who knows why. Maybe because the amnesia goes back far enough to prevent the start of a downward spiral. I'm not sure.
I have trouble remembering what happened with me after the treatment, too. Whatever it was... I can't imagine it would have been particularly good. I'm sure I was up to my eyeballs on all kinds of psych meds for the 3 months prior and after, too...
One idea is that the success of the treatment is directly proportional to the extent of the memory loss.
I'm not sure whether it is true.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1052353
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20130930/msgs/1052494.html