Hello,
It seems that after that many treatments, you might have noticed at least a little improvement.
Have a talk with the psychiatrist performing the ECT about what kind he is using. Bilateral? Unilateral?
I'm sorry to jump in here with what may be a dumb question, but have your husband's psychiatrists tried traditional bipolar medications?
Sometimes after three anti-depressants fail to help, mood stabilizers can help.
You could try reading about "Soft Bipolar."
http://www.psycheducation.org/depres...osis.html#soft
Quote:
. . . . . But Dr. Ghaemi and colleagues assert that there are versions of depression that end up acting more like bipolar disorder, even though there is no hypomania at all that we can detect (or, as in item #9, only when an antidepressant has been used).
These conditions do not respond well, in the long run, to antidepressant medications (which "poop out" or actually start making things worse).
They respond better to the medications we routinely rely on in bipolar disorder, the "mood stabilizers" you'll be introduced to in the Treatment section of this website.
And these patients have other folks in their family with bipolar disorder or something that looks rather more like that (e.g. dramatic "mood swings", even if the person never really gets ill enough to need treatment). . . . .
|
List of common mood stabilzers. There are others beyond this list:
http://www.psycheducation.org/depres...tabilizers.htm
One of the best things to break up a non-major depressive episode is exercise. Does he walk or do any other kind of work out routine? Some people stay alive through their exercise programs.
What is his sleep schedule like?
Also look at hypnosis and /or acupuncture.
How about Fish Oil?
I get Omega Brite shipped to me from on-line.
I remember hearing that the younger someone is, the more likely it is that they can get pulled out of the depression with our tools available to us at this time.
A work friend of mine who was in his late 50s was given a really low chance of success via meds and only a slightly better chance with with ECT. He choose the ECT.
M.