ECT

Who has done it? I had five sessions while I was IP. I have maintenance ect scheduled at the end of this
Month. I’m still depressed since getting home. I am
Fighting hard to be ok. I guess my question is: is maintenance ect worth the trouble?

Worth the trouble? I strongly feel, "Yes."

Two things that I know of that can impact the efficacy of ECT are: (1)unilateral vs. bilateral with bilateral being more effective, but also causing more memory holes. and (2) energy level. Often times our doc will shoot for the "minimum seizure threshold" with less effective results.

I have recently had my doc dial back the power, but it was not effective for me after years of good, effective maintenance treatment. Needless to say, when I go in on the 26th I'm going to ask her to dial it back up to the power level we were using before so that it really kicks the depression to the curb.

One last thing: I've never heard of an acute, introductory series of ECT being fewer than six sessions. Give yourself time with this. It is statistically more effective than medications.

All the best

I hate ECT and will never do it again. Lost way too much memory.

I have a lot of memory loss of the treatment

I had to use gps whenever I drove because I couldn’t remember how to get anywhere. Even my parents house and they have lived there my whole life.

I can’t remember my passwords for
Work

For me the memory loss was worth it. I’ve done ect three times. For me, the depression was so bad that I was nonfunctional.

For me though five sessions was not enough. Each time I’ve done it it’s taken at least ten bilateral sessions to get results. Which is probably why my memory is so ****ed. So five sessions really isn’t that many. I would do the maintenance and see if it gets better after a few more treatments.

I just want to feel
Better

I chose to stop ECT after my initial 7 treatments. This is about 8.5 years ago. If I recall correctly, I did start noticing an easing in my depression by my sixth treatment. After my 7th, I wanted to give medications a chance to take over again, so I rejected maintenance treatments, which were suggested. I rejected them partially because of memory issues, but mostly because I had no one to take me to and stay with me after outpatient ECT.

We're all different. My experience was that my depression started to come back after I stopped ECT. Though I can't be sure, I sort of blamed the medication mix I was on. They put me back on the same cocktail I was on before the ECT. I believe that was a mistake. Eventually, my cocktail was overhauled and that began to help.

If I had it to do over again, I would have found some way to at least get a couple maintenance treatments AND demanded a new cocktail.

My youngest nephew had a similar experience as me. ECT after a particular cocktail (almost same as I had been on) then they put him back on that same cocktail afterwards and his depression returned. I don't like to trash particular meds, so won't mention the name.

My memory issues were definitely not permanent. I may not remember some parts of my ECT hospitalization, but who would want to. My memory issues did include little stuff like forgetting how my husband took his coffee, that I was no longer drinking any alcohol, and how to get to a couple places, but quick reminders brought the memories back.

I have had 20 some odd treatments. I found they helped temporarily, but not worth the memory issues or all the hassle (had to do a 2 hour one way drive and I don't have many people who can do that for me).