Hi Comokc. I had a series of 7 or 8 ECT treatments almost 9 years ago. In my case, they were unilateral types. Many have bilateral. For me, I considered it a last resort, too. I had rejected recommendations a year before that when I was having mixed manic episodes with psychosis. When I accepted the idea, I had had an almost 6 month long severe pure depression.

The ECT did lift my depression. They recommended maintenance treatments to follow, as CANDC referred to, but I refused them, and was put back on the medications mix I had been on before the ECT. I quickly became depressed again. I guess I could have accepted the maintenance ECT at that point, but I preferred to try a medication overhaul. Luckily for me, with a little tinkering with the new cocktail, I came out of the depression again after a few months.

I did experience memory issues even from my unilateral treatments. They weren't noticeable until maybe my 3rd of 7/8 treatments. From that point, I don't remember the rest of the treatments. nor do I remember being in the hospital from that point on. That might sound scary, but being in the hospital was nothing most people would want to remember, anyway. When I returned home, I was remembering the days again, but had little memory issues. For example, I forgot how my husband took his coffee. I also forget where the Quest Diagnostics office was, even though I had been there dozens of times and it is only about 6 mins drive from my home (5 turns max). I also forgot that I had stopped drinking and ordered a beer at a restaurant, though I stopped after that. That's about it. I, personally, had no loss of memories from my past. Perhaps my depression days are gone from my memory, but that was a result of the depression, not the ECT. I wasn't doing much then, anyway.

I had no other side effects from ECT other than the mentioned above. Perhaps a sore throat after the first treatment, but that's it.

If I had to do ECT again, I would likely try some maintenance treatments.