Has anyone had a positive response to Electro-Convulsive Therapy (asks man mid 50's tried most everything)

Answer 1

I had ECT treatment twice, once for depression and once for mania. I swear by it.

Normally you would have between 6 and 12 treatments. When I woke up I had a headache and a slight stomache. But after I took a nap, they were gone.

The process is not barbaric, as they put you to sleep and give you a muscle relaxant. They put a probe on one side of your head and administer the shock. It takes like 5 seconds.

It takes the doctors longer to put you to sleep than to do the ECT treatments.

For depression, I had 12 treatments and felt much better afterwards.

Answer 2

One of my best friends9she is 45) is a severe rapid cycling bipolar I. In fact, she is in the top 5 percentile of worst bipolars in the country. She has been receiving ECT every 3-4 weeks for the past 8-9 years. Although she is on a multitude of meds, the ECT seems to be the only thing that keeps her semi-stable.There have been a few times when her ECT doctor tried to stretch out the time between treatments, which resulted in my friend having a severe manic episode. The only effect I have noticed in her is that she sometimes forgets things more than she used to.

Answer 3

My friend's wife did ECT and the multiple treatments finally got her out of her delusional paranoia.

She has been suffering mental illness for 20 years. In and out of hospitals for years at a time.

This last stay was for a year. The whole time, she was talking delusionally about being murdered again and again and resurrected again and again. She had many other delusions as well. She was in an awful place and did not respond to medication.

ECT worked and now she is in a group home that is a step up from a hospital. She's still working on getting ready to go back to her real home though.

Overall, she had positive results with it.

The next case I know is with a business man who suffered severe depression. He had ECT in the past and it snapped him out of his depression so he could function for the next ten years. Then he fell into a bad depression again and had ECT again. It worked and he was able to function... I think this time it was only for several years.

Then he ended up in a mental hospital for depression again. He didn't want ECT anymore.. I think because of some memory loss. I'm not completely sure, but he did have mixed results with it in the past.

I know his story because I met him in the mental hospital.

I think ECT can definitely have positive results when nothing else works, but it's not a magic bullet either.... Obviously, do your research and weigh the risks and benefits.

Good luck to you!

Answer 4

I have seen people treated with ECT as a last resort. It worked for 6 out of 7 treatments I saw. The individuals were very ill and medications and other therapy's had done nothing to ease their suffering. The six that it worked for were so surprised at how it helped them. They were also surprised that they felt nothing except fear of the unknown before the procedure.
You need to talk to your mental health team and get as many opinions as you can. Try every other therapy that is available to you and see how you go.
Good luck

Answer 5

No. Don't do that. Electroshock therapy is the biggest line of bulls.hit to ever come out of psychiatry.

1. Find a nice mellow dance or alternative medicine studio and take a yoga class.
2. Take meditation classes! Meditate regularly.
3. Exercise more! Go swimming (very low impact). Do anything semi-aerobic that you can and that your doctor OKs.
4. Take community education classes to meet some new people.
5. Read some Zen philosophy. It's comforting.

Answer 6

I hate to admit it but it was the only thing that would work for my gran mother but she only got that bad in the first place because she would stop taking her meds try getting out there right in the thick of life only doing up beat things and hang out with up beat people yes just going swimming or something that's enjoyable maybe what u need but I wish you the best of luck take care

Answer 7

ECT has been extremely controversial since its inception (Thanks to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") Please talk to psychiatrists who actually perform ECT- talk to several, in fact. From my experience in the medical field (I'm not a psychiatrist), it works for some and may not work for others.

I can say that for me, ECT literally saved my life. I did, however get many opinions from professionals before making a decision.

I wish you the best of luck.