Hi,

I know a little bit about ECT because I drove my work friend to a consult with an ECT pdoc abuut 3 years ago.

The pdoc wanted him to go three times a week for a month (12 treatments) and then once a month follow up for a while. He did this as an out patient but getting rides three days a week for a month was a hassle and he stopped after 12 or so. As far as I know, my friend said that the treatments did not help at all. But then, maybe the followups would have helped. I don't know.

My friend had to go off any anti-seizure meds he had -- in his case it was Klonopin. (They switched him to Xanax.) The ECT induces a short controlled seizure.

My friend had to get to the hospital early in the morning without having eaten or drunk anything the night before. There are about 3 different ways of doing the procedure -- they depend on where the wires to the head go. One way is the most effective but it also has slightly more side effects than the others. A pdoc who does this, will have his favorite way.

One side effects is memory loss during the treatment. This pdoc told people not to drive until the series was over. People get lost on the road.
Most people recover their memory loss but they still might not ever remember the time from around the treatments.

A few people completely loose memory of what happened before. I don't know the stats on this but I remember reading 2 situations on the Internet. One guy was glad he lost his memory because he had been so depressed his whole life.

The other side effect is headaches. Most go away after the treatment. Or if they don't go away, they can be medicated. A very very small number of people have headaches that last and that cannot be medicated. That statistic concerned me because headaches don't sound like fun.

I remember Highthatsize said one time that the best kind of ECT is done in a place where lots of ECT is going on. That's the kind of place that my friend went to -- I think there is like one big hospital that does it out patient in my area.

Here's the thing: I have not heard about ECT being effective for anything other than depression. But then, I am not up to date on this anyway.
I don't know if it works for mania, psychosis, or anxiety. I would ask the pdoc lots of questions about that.


I hope that some of this is helpful. I know that these are difficult decisions for you.

Mari