MSNBC has this article today that is an excellent look at electroconvulsive therapy and is a great introduction into the treatment for those who are not familiar with it:
“Shock Therapy Makes A Quiet Comeback”
It’s an excellent overview and a good place to start if you’re looking for information on ECT.
Something that hadn’t been mentioned to me previous to having treatments that is discussed in the article is the relapse rate. I wish it had been, because this is something I think I’m struggling with.
I’ve had nine or ten treatments, the last being a couple of months ago. In the last few weeks, I’ve felt the depression begin to creep up on me. Is this a normal time frame? I don’t know, but I thinkit’s probably not, based on discussions I’ve had with other ECT patients.
I probably will have what they call a “maintenance treatment” in about a month-honestly, I did something a little dumb and got my ears pierced before remembering you have to remove your earrings for the treatments, and I’ll probably wait until I’m in the clear with that before I have another treatment. Not, probably the smartest decision but it has given me an opportunity to really weigh the effects that the treatments have had on the depression.
Was it a miracle cure for me? In some ways, it was. I was beginning to have issues with impulse control in the darkest days before I started ECT, and that has been one area I can say has gotten significantly better with the treatments. While I occasionally still feel impulses to self-harm, they aren’t nearly as strong as or as persistent as they were. This, in itself, made getting treatments probably well worth the time.
But when it comes to the depression, I have a little trouble determining if it was the miracle cure my psychiatrist told me it was because I’m battling severe anxiety more now than I ever did. It tends to overshadow the depression.
However, other people can really tell the difference. I recently went back to the hospital for outpatient treatments, and the people who ran it said that I appeared, at least, to be in a MUCH different place than I was a year previous when I came in for the same classes and treatments. I don’t feel like I’m in a better place, but I trust them when they say it seems much easier, this year, to lift my spirits than it did a year ago at this time.
So it may not have been a super-cure. But it seems to have had benefits that made it worthwhile-and since I had absolutely no side-effects at all, it’s much easier to say that than if I’d had some memory loss or fuzzy-headedness.
If you’re looking into the treatments for yourself or a loved one, my first piece of advice would be to ask how high the current level of the electricity is, and compare it to other treatment locations in your area. I think the reason I suffered zero side effects was because my psychiatrist uses a lower “voltage” (or whatever the proper term is) than a lot of clinics.
I would also recommend you do research outside of the internet. See if you can talk to patients who’ve gone to your specific doctor for treatments. If you can’t, and the internet is your only source for research, remember how much the treatments have changed in the last years.
And feel free to ask me any questions you might have-I’d be happy to answer them as best I can.
The Angie. 