Dear GJmom -

My heart was saddened to hear of your experience with your local hospital, but it fits with what happened to me, when I guy who had come well recommended excused himself as a "small town ECT doc" who couldn't posibbly get his hospital to approve it and suggested instead that I seek out a "tertiary medical center," i.e. something connected to a major medical school, and that's where I'm going. The alternative, as has been suggested in this thread, is to ask yourself whether RSD and the resulting social isolation has left you really depressed. If the answer to that one is "yes" then we need say no more . . . .

Secondly, janism raised the issue of memory loss. In addition to using RUL etc., the other thing that really struck me when I put together ther article was research showing that there wasn't even any temporary loss in short term memory when ketamine was used as the general anesthetic, which is really exciting because short term memory loss was always understood as just the basic price of admission for the procedure.

I wish you only good luck in finding a place that can do this for you.

Mike

ps Janism raised the list of article that I will happily email to anyone in pdf formats. For anyone's reference, that list is as follows:

Key Relevant Articles re RUL ECT as Treatment for CRPS-1 (RSD)

1. Rasmussen KG and Rummans TA, "Electroconvulsive Therapy in the Management of Chronic Pain," Current Pain and Headache Reports, 2002, 6:17-22;

2. Wolanin MW, Gulevski V, and Schwartzman RJ, "Treatment of CRPS With ECT," Pain Physician, 2007, 10:573-578;

3. McDaniel WW, "Electroconvulsive Therapy In Complex Regional Pain Syndromes, The Journal of ECT, 2003, 19:226-229;

4. Wasan AD, Artin A, and Clark A, “A Case-Matching Study of the Analgesic Properties of Electroconvulsive Therapy,” Pain Medicine, 2004, 5:50-58;

5. Sackeim HA, Prudic J, Fuller R, et al., "The Cognitive Effects of Electroconvulsive Therapy in Community Settings," Neuropsychopharmacology, 2007, 32:244-254;

6. Takano H, Motohashi N, Uema T, et al., "Changes in Regional Cerebral Blood Flow During Acute Electroconvulsive Therapy in Patients With Depression, British Journal of Psychiatry," 2007, 190:63-68;

7. Fukui S, Shigemori S, and Nosaka S., "Changes in Regional Cerebral Blood Flow in the Thalamus After Electroconvulsive Therapy for Patients With Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type 1 (Preliminary Case Series)," Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, 2002, 27:529-532;

8. Maihööfner C, Handwerker HO, Neundöörfer B, et al., "Cortical reorganization during recovery from complex regional pain Syndrome," Neurology, 2004, 63:693-701;

9. Nobler MS, Oquendo MA, Kegeles LS, et al., "Decreased Regional Brain Metabolism After ECT," Am. J. Psychiatry, 2001, 158:305-308; and

10. McDaniel WW, Sahota AK, Vyas BV, et al. "Ketamine Appears Associated With Better Word Recall Than Etomidate After a Course of 6 Electroconvulsive Therapies," The Journal of ECT, 2006, 22:103-106.