![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 21 of 21. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by ChicagoKat on October 4, 2012, at 14:09:32
I just want to get a discussion going, get other people's opinions and experiences. I know I should prob post this on the alt. tx site, but it seems no one ever goes there.
In my case, I felt that ect did way more harm than good. It not only didn't help, it made my depression, and especiallly, my anxiety worse. Plus it not only affected my memory, it negatively affected my cognition. And after I had it, my meds stopped working...may be coincidence, may not be. Anyways, after I had it I had to stop working and go on disability. And I had two hospitalizations due to suicidality, which I had never had before.
After I had it I did a lot more research on it, which I wish I had done before I had it. I was so desperate to feel better that I just believed what my doctor told me which was that it was 80-90% efficacious. HA! Everyone I met during my hospitalizations said they wish they had not done it. In my research, I found out things they don't tell you before you go through with it. Of course, there's every chance these findings were wrong or misleading, though they did all come from published articles in well-respected journals. I regret I do not have the references. Anyways, the first thing they don't tell you is that not only does ect affect memory, but that it severely affects cognition. One article mentioned that the IQ of most individuals goes down by 40-60 pts. That's a hell of a lot! I used to have an IQ of 154, which means I am now down to 100. And I feel less intelligent than I used to, which sucks. Another thing they don't tell you is that ect definitely causes brain damage. A study was done with some poor rats; one group was given ect, adjusted to be equivalent to the normal dosages humans receive, the other was not. The rats were then "sacrificed", and they found pinpoint hemorrhages scattered throughout the brains of the rats who had had ect. I forget what the P value was, but it was very low. And it is only natural to believe that the more treatments one has, the more damage is done. Lastly, they don't tell you, at least I wasn't told, that even if it works, the effects don't last, so maintenance treatments are required. Which just means more cost, more memory loss, more cognitive impairment, and more brain damage. I have heard that people who have had ect have had strokes secondary to it later in life. That bit was just something I heard, so I can't say the info came from a peer-reviewed article. But it does make sense given the brain damage that is caused.
OK, my rant is over. As I said, it's just my opinion that ect is dangerous and not as efficacious as claimed. And I don't have the citations to the articles I read. And I know that ect really has helped some people. Like I said, I just wanted to hear other people's experiences and opinions. So please no attacking me for my own opinion. We are each entitled to our own.
Kat
Posted by Christ_empowered on October 4, 2012, at 14:26:43
In reply to Does ect do more harm than good?, posted by ChicagoKat on October 4, 2012, at 14:09:32
expensive, dangerous, high relapse rates, tends to make people dumb(er) after enough exposure.
Posted by Roslynn on October 4, 2012, at 15:48:59
In reply to Does ect do more harm than good?, posted by ChicagoKat on October 4, 2012, at 14:09:32
I'm sorry you had to go through this. I've always wondered where that 80% figure came from. And they definitely do not tell you that you will need maintenance treatments and you must continue to take meds which may or may not work the same as before.
> I just want to get a discussion going, get other people's opinions and experiences. I know I should prob post this on the alt. tx site, but it seems no one ever goes there.
>
> In my case, I felt that ect did way more harm than good. It not only didn't help, it made my depression, and especiallly, my anxiety worse. Plus it not only affected my memory, it negatively affected my cognition. And after I had it, my meds stopped working...may be coincidence, may not be. Anyways, after I had it I had to stop working and go on disability. And I had two hospitalizations due to suicidality, which I had never had before.
>
> After I had it I did a lot more research on it, which I wish I had done before I had it. I was so desperate to feel better that I just believed what my doctor told me which was that it was 80-90% efficacious. HA! Everyone I met during my hospitalizations said they wish they had not done it. In my research, I found out things they don't tell you before you go through with it. Of course, there's every chance these findings were wrong or misleading, though they did all come from published articles in well-respected journals. I regret I do not have the references. Anyways, the first thing they don't tell you is that not only does ect affect memory, but that it severely affects cognition. One article mentioned that the IQ of most individuals goes down by 40-60 pts. That's a hell of a lot! I used to have an IQ of 154, which means I am now down to 100. And I feel less intelligent than I used to, which sucks. Another thing they don't tell you is that ect definitely causes brain damage. A study was done with some poor rats; one group was given ect, adjusted to be equivalent to the normal dosages humans receive, the other was not. The rats were then "sacrificed", and they found pinpoint hemorrhages scattered throughout the brains of the rats who had had ect. I forget what the P value was, but it was very low. And it is only natural to believe that the more treatments one has, the more damage is done. Lastly, they don't tell you, at least I wasn't told, that even if it works, the effects don't last, so maintenance treatments are required. Which just means more cost, more memory loss, more cognitive impairment, and more brain damage. I have heard that people who have had ect have had strokes secondary to it later in life. That bit was just something I heard, so I can't say the info came from a peer-reviewed article. But it does make sense given the brain damage that is caused.
>
> OK, my rant is over. As I said, it's just my opinion that ect is dangerous and not as efficacious as claimed. And I don't have the citations to the articles I read. And I know that ect really has helped some people. Like I said, I just wanted to hear other people's experiences and opinions. So please no attacking me for my own opinion. We are each entitled to our own.
> Kat
>
>
Posted by linkadge on October 4, 2012, at 16:23:46
In reply to Re: Does ect do more harm than good?, posted by Roslynn on October 4, 2012, at 15:48:59
I agree that it does do more harm than good.
The very high relapse rate is something that most dcotors don't factor into the equation (risk / benefit analysis).
Even if it did work in 80% of cases (which I believe the research dose not conclude), an individual is highly likely to relapse within 6-12 months.
Now, not only are they back where they started, their brain is less capable of recovering on its own. Cognitive impairment is something that can ruin an individual's chances of attaining appropriate employment - potentially amplifying depression.
My line of thinking is this......doctors have a whole range of chemical treatments which are not routinely used for depression......opiates, dopamine agonists, stimulants, ketamine, etc.
If your goal is to just get a temporary lift...why not use some of these agents first? At least there is less evidence of permanent brain damage.
Linkadge
Posted by linkadge on October 4, 2012, at 16:26:17
In reply to Does ect do more harm than good?, posted by ChicagoKat on October 4, 2012, at 14:09:32
I think that psychiatry would rather quietly phase ECT out than ban it all together. There would be too much backlash on psychiatry if they outright admitted that it did more harm than good.
Linkadge
Posted by JONO_IN_ADELAIDE on October 4, 2012, at 17:51:10
In reply to Does ect do more harm than good?, posted by ChicagoKat on October 4, 2012, at 14:09:32
If you have a life threatening endrogenous depression, then modern brief pulse ETC is probably the most effective way of draggfing you out of it quickly, however, I would only consider it if a combo of SSRI and NARI had failed
Posted by ChicagoKat on October 4, 2012, at 18:03:59
In reply to Re: Does ect do more harm than good?, posted by linkadge on October 4, 2012, at 16:26:17
> I think that psychiatry would rather quietly phase ECT out than ban it all together. There would be too much backlash on psychiatry if they outright admitted that it did more harm than good.
>
> LinkadgeMy fear is that pdocs make too much money doing it to phase it out. That's why I immediately quit seeing the pdoc who had recommended it/administered it to me.
Kat
Posted by bleauberry on October 4, 2012, at 18:16:27
In reply to Does ect do more harm than good?, posted by ChicagoKat on October 4, 2012, at 14:09:32
I've been through ect. Things were suddenly much better, but not until right at the end, and then it turned out to be only a one day wonder. A couple days later I was threatening suicide and carried off in an ambulance. So ect obviously did not work. It's weird how it has impacted my memory and cognition. It has done so in a random nonsensical pattern. Random chunks of memory gone. One thing is clear as a bell and another thing is nonexistent never happened. Names, same thing. Lots of damage in the name recall department. Math quite a bit slower. But perfectly functioning and no one would know. I used to be a natural straight A student. I think now I would probably be about a B instead.
It didn't work, it did do damage. Simple as that. And very expensive even with insurance.
To be fair there might be some positive notes. For me, ect was like a turning point. It was the end of a bad chapter and the beginning of a new one. Now, the new one didn't start off any better either, but at least it was a new chapter and it had a long way to go, lots of things could happen. But in the old chapter there was no hope. Post ect had me, by so called coincidence (actually a God thing), end up in a church playing my guitar after not playing for years. And it was fabulous. I felt like crap, but what was going on around me was better than my couch. The help of certain herbs, antibiotics, and occasional meds plus high attention to food choices, all these have helped a lot more than meds or meds alone. But without having gone through the failure of ect, maybe none of this would have happened?
Overall, I think it should remain an option for patients who request it. Because once in a while I have heard from people that were helped enough by ect that they were glad they did it, but I do not think it should be recommended or prescribed or marketed or advertised. I was sold on it because I was in the psychiatric ward of the hospital for a week depressed as hell and on the wall the whole time was a poster advertising the option of ect. I mean, that's not cool. The patient is highly vulnerable and not in their right mind to make such big decisions. Ya know? Or at least that's how it was with me.
Posted by emmanuel98 on October 4, 2012, at 18:24:30
In reply to Re: Does ect do more harm than good?, posted by bleauberry on October 4, 2012, at 18:16:27
I did unilateral ECT. Didn't do a thing. Then they tried bilateral ECT. My cognitive capacities are fine, but for about two months afterwards, I forgot everything. Couldn't recognize friends, couldn't remember what my condo looked like, couldn't remember the names of roads. I spent three weeks inpatient doing bilateral ECT, so the cost to the insurance company must have been really high. As for my depression, I was suicidal again within weeks. What finally pulled me out were lamictal and DBT.
Posted by JONO_IN_ADELAIDE on October 4, 2012, at 18:39:34
In reply to Re: Does ect do more harm than good? » linkadge, posted by ChicagoKat on October 4, 2012, at 18:03:59
I dont think it should ever be used just because they dont know what else to do, but I think it has a place for carefuly selected patients - maybe its more commonly used in the US than here?
Also, after the series you need intensive drug therapy (usualy combination) to stop the depression relapsing
Also, i think its only usefull in endrogenous/biochemical depression, not reactive/atypical
Posted by ChicagoKat on October 4, 2012, at 18:53:28
In reply to Re: Does ect do more harm than good?, posted by JONO_IN_ADELAIDE on October 4, 2012, at 18:39:34
> I dont think it should ever be used just because they dont know what else to do, but I think it has a place for carefuly selected patients - maybe its more commonly used in the US than here?
>
> Also, after the series you need intensive drug therapy (usualy combination) to stop the depression relapsing
>
> Also, i think its only usefull in endrogenous/biochemical depression, not reactive/atypicalWell, I believe I'm more the reactive/atypical type, so no wonder it did no good, but my pdoc at the time certainly didn't check that out. I think she just saw dollar signs.
Kat
Posted by phillipa on October 4, 2012, at 19:05:35
In reply to Re: Does ect do more harm than good? » JONO_IN_ADELAIDE, posted by ChicagoKat on October 4, 2012, at 18:53:28
Only one patient I know of had when a new RN and I had to watch. Wasn't pleasant the seizure and losing control of bladder. He got wheeled back to his room in wheelchair and didn't remember a thing. I think his diagnosis was some sort of scizophenia as when he left the hospital he never took his med. A constant repeat. Now this was years ago also. Phillipa
Posted by JONO_IN_ADELAIDE on October 4, 2012, at 19:40:02
In reply to Re: Does ect do more harm than good? » JONO_IN_ADELAIDE, posted by ChicagoKat on October 4, 2012, at 18:53:28
God, its awful to think of doctors pushing things like surgery and ECT because of money - you realy so muchon them for what you think is impartial advice.
That said, if I was at the end of the road, i think I'd try anything - even psychosurgery
Posted by Zyprexa on October 4, 2012, at 22:37:46
In reply to Re: Does ect do more harm than good?, posted by JONO_IN_ADELAIDE on October 4, 2012, at 19:40:02
When I was in hospital because I would not take meds, they gave me ECTs without telling what they were or if I wanted them. Probably why I can't remember anything from before ECTs or much of in hospital. That was 15 years ago!
Posted by ChicagoKat on October 5, 2012, at 11:46:57
In reply to Does ect do more harm than good?, posted by ChicagoKat on October 4, 2012, at 14:09:32
> I just want to get a discussion going, get other people's opinions and experiences. I know I should prob post this on the alt. tx site, but it seems no one ever goes there.
>
> In my case, I felt that ect did way more harm than good. It not only didn't help, it made my depression, and especiallly, my anxiety worse. Plus it not only affected my memory, it negatively affected my cognition. And after I had it, my meds stopped working...may be coincidence, may not be. Anyways, after I had it I had to stop working and go on disability. And I had two hospitalizations due to suicidality, which I had never had before.
>
> After I had it I did a lot more research on it, which I wish I had done before I had it. I was so desperate to feel better that I just believed what my doctor told me which was that it was 80-90% efficacious. HA! Everyone I met during my hospitalizations said they wish they had not done it. In my research, I found out things they don't tell you before you go through with it. Of course, there's every chance these findings were wrong or misleading, though they did all come from published articles in well-respected journals. I regret I do not have the references. Anyways, the first thing they don't tell you is that not only does ect affect memory, but that it severely affects cognition. One article mentioned that the IQ of most individuals goes down by 40-60 pts. That's a hell of a lot! I used to have an IQ of 154, which means I am now down to 100. And I feel less intelligent than I used to, which sucks. Another thing they don't tell you is that ect definitely causes brain damage. A study was done with some poor rats; one group was given ect, adjusted to be equivalent to the normal dosages humans receive, the other was not. The rats were then "sacrificed", and they found pinpoint hemorrhages scattered throughout the brains of the rats who had had ect. I forget what the P value was, but it was very low. And it is only natural to believe that the more treatments one has, the more damage is done. Lastly, they don't tell you, at least I wasn't told, that even if it works, the effects don't last, so maintenance treatments are required. Which just means more cost, more memory loss, more cognitive impairment, and more brain damage. I have heard that people who have had ect have had strokes secondary to it later in life. That bit was just something I heard, so I can't say the info came from a peer-reviewed article. But it does make sense given the brain damage that is caused.
>
> OK, my rant is over. As I said, it's just my opinion that ect is dangerous and not as efficacious as claimed. And I don't have the citations to the articles I read. And I know that ect really has helped some people. Like I said, I just wanted to hear other people's experiences and opinions. So please no attacking me for my own opinion. We are each entitled to our own.
> Kat
>
>
I'm glad to see that most of you agree with me that ect is too dangerous, ineffective, and costly a treattment for most people. Thanks for all your responses :)
Kat
Posted by AlexCanada on October 5, 2012, at 21:40:17
In reply to Does ect do more harm than good?, posted by ChicagoKat on October 4, 2012, at 14:09:32
Sorry to hear about your negative experiences but hopefully your post can serve as a warning to many.
I myself was in dire need of relief almost a decade ago when my problems started. I had lousy doctors and they would not listen when a certain medication was pushing my anxiety through to the breaking point. I was so desperate that I gave in to ECT. Huge mistake. After ECT I have had persistent LONG term memory problems. Antero Grade Memory Loss. Thankfully it is not severe to the point where I am a vegetable.
Each day is like waking up new. What happened yesterday? Mild recollection. And if a few days pass then who the hell knows what happened. Short term memory is an issue too but not as severe as my long term memory issues. I have incredibly difficultly retaining any new information. I can read about a medication 50 times. Day in, day out, study this, study that, and it never sticks! Even if my melancholic depression symptoms improve from a future medication (parnate stopped working for me a while back) my memory issues will remain as they always have ever since ECT. I would be lost if I didn't write things down all the damn time. Also my intelligence in general is highly compromised. I used to be a genius. I was the kind of kid who people would call a smart *ss. I had such a creative mind and was so full of possibility. Most of that is now lost.
I been seeking cognition boosting medication desperately. Memantine is the next thing I will be trying.
If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know. Hopefully something available in canada.
For anyone out there please avoid ECT unless you are absolutely severely suicidal and have ruled out various medications. If you damage your cognition it will make it all the more difficult to search for relief of what ails you when you do not have the memory retention.
> I just want to get a discussion going, get other people's opinions and experiences. I know I should prob post this on the alt. tx site, but it seems no one ever goes there.
>
> In my case, I felt that ect did way more harm than good. It not only didn't help, it made my depression, and especiallly, my anxiety worse. Plus it not only affected my memory, it negatively affected my cognition. And after I had it, my meds stopped working...may be coincidence, may not be. Anyways, after I had it I had to stop working and go on disability. And I had two hospitalizations due to suicidality, which I had never had before.
>
> After I had it I did a lot more research on it, which I wish I had done before I had it. I was so desperate to feel better that I just believed what my doctor told me which was that it was 80-90% efficacious. HA! Everyone I met during my hospitalizations said they wish they had not done it. In my research, I found out things they don't tell you before you go through with it. Of course, there's every chance these findings were wrong or misleading, though they did all come from published articles in well-respected journals. I regret I do not have the references. Anyways, the first thing they don't tell you is that not only does ect affect memory, but that it severely affects cognition. One article mentioned that the IQ of most individuals goes down by 40-60 pts. That's a hell of a lot! I used to have an IQ of 154, which means I am now down to 100. And I feel less intelligent than I used to, which sucks. Another thing they don't tell you is that ect definitely causes brain damage. A study was done with some poor rats; one group was given ect, adjusted to be equivalent to the normal dosages humans receive, the other was not. The rats were then "sacrificed", and they found pinpoint hemorrhages scattered throughout the brains of the rats who had had ect. I forget what the P value was, but it was very low. And it is only natural to believe that the more treatments one has, the more damage is done. Lastly, they don't tell you, at least I wasn't told, that even if it works, the effects don't last, so maintenance treatments are required. Which just means more cost, more memory loss, more cognitive impairment, and more brain damage. I have heard that people who have had ect have had strokes secondary to it later in life. That bit was just something I heard, so I can't say the info came from a peer-reviewed article. But it does make sense given the brain damage that is caused.
>
> OK, my rant is over. As I said, it's just my opinion that ect is dangerous and not as efficacious as claimed. And I don't have the citations to the articles I read. And I know that ect really has helped some people. Like I said, I just wanted to hear other people's experiences and opinions. So please no attacking me for my own opinion. We are each entitled to our own.
> Kat
>
>
Posted by ChicagoKat on October 6, 2012, at 9:51:12
In reply to ECT ruined my memory! » ChicagoKat, posted by AlexCanada on October 5, 2012, at 21:40:17
Oh Alex, I'm so sorry to hear what you are going through with your memeory and cognition problems. I wish I could help.
I'm glad I put that post up, b/c I felt like maybe I was the only one who had such a bad experience with ect, but it seems, sadly, that there are people who are even worse off than me. I wish we could all get together and form some sort of class acion suit; but I do remember (of course it would be one of the things I remember, HA), that they made us sign our rights to sue away before treatment began. I feel sorry for all the many people who trusted their docs and went like sheep to the slaughter to have their brains damaged.> Sorry to hear about your negative experiences but hopefully your post can serve as a warning to many.
>
> I myself was in dire need of relief almost a decade ago when my problems started. I had lousy doctors and they would not listen when a certain medication was pushing my anxiety through to the breaking point. I was so desperate that I gave in to ECT. Huge mistake. After ECT I have had persistent LONG term memory problems. Antero Grade Memory Loss. Thankfully it is not severe to the point where I am a vegetable.
>
> Each day is like waking up new. What happened yesterday? Mild recollection. And if a few days pass then who the hell knows what happened. Short term memory is an issue too but not as severe as my long term memory issues. I have incredibly difficultly retaining any new information. I can read about a medication 50 times. Day in, day out, study this, study that, and it never sticks! Even if my melancholic depression symptoms improve from a future medication (parnate stopped working for me a while back) my memory issues will remain as they always have ever since ECT. I would be lost if I didn't write things down all the damn time. Also my intelligence in general is highly compromised. I used to be a genius. I was the kind of kid who people would call a smart *ss. I had such a creative mind and was so full of possibility. Most of that is now lost.
>
> I been seeking cognition boosting medication desperately. Memantine is the next thing I will be trying.
>
> If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know. Hopefully something available in canada.
>
> For anyone out there please avoid ECT unless you are absolutely severely suicidal and have ruled out various medications. If you damage your cognition it will make it all the more difficult to search for relief of what ails you when you do not have the memory retention.
>
>
>
> > I just want to get a discussion going, get other people's opinions and experiences. I know I should prob post this on the alt. tx site, but it seems no one ever goes there.
> >
> > In my case, I felt that ect did way more harm than good. It not only didn't help, it made my depression, and especiallly, my anxiety worse. Plus it not only affected my memory, it negatively affected my cognition. And after I had it, my meds stopped working...may be coincidence, may not be. Anyways, after I had it I had to stop working and go on disability. And I had two hospitalizations due to suicidality, which I had never had before.
> >
> > After I had it I did a lot more research on it, which I wish I had done before I had it. I was so desperate to feel better that I just believed what my doctor told me which was that it was 80-90% efficacious. HA! Everyone I met during my hospitalizations said they wish they had not done it. In my research, I found out things they don't tell you before you go through with it. Of course, there's every chance these findings were wrong or misleading, though they did all come from published articles in well-respected journals. I regret I do not have the references. Anyways, the first thing they don't tell you is that not only does ect affect memory, but that it severely affects cognition. One article mentioned that the IQ of most individuals goes down by 40-60 pts. That's a hell of a lot! I used to have an IQ of 154, which means I am now down to 100. And I feel less intelligent than I used to, which sucks. Another thing they don't tell you is that ect definitely causes brain damage. A study was done with some poor rats; one group was given ect, adjusted to be equivalent to the normal dosages humans receive, the other was not. The rats were then "sacrificed", and they found pinpoint hemorrhages scattered throughout the brains of the rats who had had ect. I forget what the P value was, but it was very low. And it is only natural to believe that the more treatments one has, the more damage is done. Lastly, they don't tell you, at least I wasn't told, that even if it works, the effects don't last, so maintenance treatments are required. Which just means more cost, more memory loss, more cognitive impairment, and more brain damage. I have heard that people who have had ect have had strokes secondary to it later in life. That bit was just something I heard, so I can't say the info came from a peer-reviewed article. But it does make sense given the brain damage that is caused.
> >
> > OK, my rant is over. As I said, it's just my opinion that ect is dangerous and not as efficacious as claimed. And I don't have the citations to the articles I read. And I know that ect really has helped some people. Like I said, I just wanted to hear other people's experiences and opinions. So please no attacking me for my own opinion. We are each entitled to our own.
> > Kat
> >
> >
>
>
Posted by hmariewv on October 6, 2012, at 16:57:30
In reply to ECT ruined my memory! » ChicagoKat, posted by AlexCanada on October 5, 2012, at 21:40:17
Thank you for this post. My Dr wants to do ECT and I've been worried about it. I took Lamictal generic and had a bad reaction to it. Made me much more depressed and affected my cognition functioning for the worse. I thought ECT might speed up my brain again after the Lamictal slowed it down. I'm also searching for cognition boosting medication. I don't know about the Memantine. Looks like it slows down the brain by blocking glutamate which is what Lamictal does and it made me lose my memory. I am not bipolar so I should never had taken it , maybe thats why I had such a negative experience with it. I've bought several different things over the internet but never found any thing that has made a big difference.
Posted by ChicagoKat on October 6, 2012, at 20:05:09
In reply to Re: ECT ruined my memory!, posted by hmariewv on October 6, 2012, at 16:57:30
> Thank you for this post. My Dr wants to do ECT and I've been worried about it. I took Lamictal generic and had a bad reaction to it. Made me much more depressed and affected my cognition functioning for the worse. I thought ECT might speed up my brain again after the Lamictal slowed it down. I'm also searching for cognition boosting medication. I don't know about the Memantine. Looks like it slows down the brain by blocking glutamate which is what Lamictal does and it made me lose my memory. I am not bipolar so I should never had taken it , maybe thats why I had such a negative experience with it. I've bought several different things over the internet but never found any thing that has made a big difference.
Be sure you get PLENTY of B vitamins, they are very important for cognition, sorry I forget which ones in particular are the most important but:
1. SLS will know and will hopefully chime in
2. In the end, it doesn't really matter, b/c since B vitamins are water-soluble you can't really OD on themAlso, I have a friend who knows a lot about meds and cognition and I will ask him for some suggestions for you and get back to you with the info.
Lastly, I hope you have decided against the ect, it will only worsen your cognition, but of course it is your decision.
My best,
Kat
Posted by ChicagoKat on October 8, 2012, at 12:40:00
In reply to Re: ECT ruined my memory! » hmariewv, posted by ChicagoKat on October 6, 2012, at 20:05:09
> > Thank you for this post. My Dr wants to do ECT and I've been worried about it. I took Lamictal generic and had a bad reaction to it. Made me much more depressed and affected my cognition functioning for the worse. I thought ECT might speed up my brain again after the Lamictal slowed it down. I'm also searching for cognition boosting medication. I don't know about the Memantine. Looks like it slows down the brain by blocking glutamate which is what Lamictal does and it made me lose my memory. I am not bipolar so I should never had taken it , maybe thats why I had such a negative experience with it. I've bought several different things over the internet but never found any thing that has made a big difference.
>
> Be sure you get PLENTY of B vitamins, they are very important for cognition, sorry I forget which ones in particular are the most important but:
> 1. SLS will know and will hopefully chime in
> 2. In the end, it doesn't really matter, b/c since B vitamins are water-soluble you can't really OD on them
>
> Also, I have a friend who knows a lot about meds and cognition and I will ask him for some suggestions for you and get back to you with the info.
>
> Lastly, I hope you have decided against the ect, it will only worsen your cognition, but of course it is your decision.
>
> My best,
> Kat
>
>I'm sorry hmariewv, my friend and I had an argument, and apparently I am no longer friends with the person who knew so much about meds and cognition, so I'm sorry I haven't been able to get recs for you. I would advise you to put out a post specifically asking if there are any good meds that can help cognition, so it will be more recent, and likely to be seen. I would title it 'meds to help cognition?' and hopefully Jono, Scott, or Eric will have some ideas. If anyone has any ideas it will be them. But you never know, there may be someone else who will have a good idea too.
Hang in there,
Kat
p.s. I definitely do not have bipolar disease, mine is completely unipolar depression too....and I also tried Lamictal, but I did not experience any adverse events from it; it just did nothing for me. I'm so sorry it was so harmful to you. :(
What other meds were you taking at the time? What are you taking now?
Posted by alchemy on October 12, 2012, at 16:56:26
In reply to Re: ECT ruined my memory!, posted by hmariewv on October 6, 2012, at 16:57:30
> Thank you for this post. My Dr wants to do ECT and I've been worried about it. I took Lamictal generic and had a bad reaction to it. Made me much more depressed and affected my cognition functioning for the worse. I thought ECT might speed up my brain again after
i just wanted to add in case you are still suffering from your depression worsening from lamictal. ect was quickly miraculous for me twice when a geodon and an abilify trial sent me into hell. for some reason, ect has only seemed to help me when a drug trial throws me off the deep end. everyone is different. but i don't think it is ever used to improve or speed up cognition. it didn't seem to affect mine, but for others it has.
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