Yes, yet another ECT thread from me!

Just wondering, if ECT helped you, how many treatments did it take? I think my psychiatrist said something like no improvement before at least four treatments. Just curious to hear about others' experiences. Thanks.

I've been told one usually needs 4-8 treatments - or that it usually starts working after 4 to 8 treatments. Not sure.

I've been very active when the subject of ECT comes up.

I had a very positive experience with it. BUT.... everyone is different apparently even I was different. I just talked to my Mom about ECT. She was completely against me having it this time. She was judging this ECT by the past round of ECT I had. That first round didn't go so well. She said my memory was bad and my personality was different. It was not successful at all for treating my depression. I ended up in the hospital again my depression was so bad.

BUT....The first round of ECT (quite a few years ago) was not the same ECT I started a year ago. Once the differences were explained to us we felt better about trying the treatment again. Boy am I glad I did. I am depression free today. It is hard to tell when the treatments actually started to help as I was not an outpatient during the first month of treatments. And the different environment affected my mood. My mood definitely improved during that first month, but I was still depressed when discharged from the hospital. The better I started to feel the more spread out the treatments became. Once I had to go back to an increase in treatments because the depression appeared to be returning.

I would suggest talking with your doctor about the type of treatment he is doing and what he has found as far as his success rate. Just know that every person is different. Just like I was different the first time I had it done. My Mom actually called this second round a miracle. I also have a different doctor who spends more time with me just talking about how I feel and about the treatments. My first doctor just did the treatment.

The only way to truly know how it will effect you is by having it done. In the beginning of this second round of treatments I would return home either very tired or manic. But I don't know if that was from the treatment or the anesthesia. Now that I've had a few I feel fine after them.

Let us know how these treatments end up working for you. If you have anymore questions, just ask. Just give them a chance to work. A year later I continue to have maintenance treatments. Most people have treatments for a year. There is a high rate of relapse hence the maintenance treatments.