My husband has been in a severe depressive episode for almost 4 years. His disease appears to be resistant to all medications. We have started ECT treatments--he has had 11 so far. We had to slow down the schedule, he could only tolerate one treatment per week. We have not seen a lot of progress....what's next? What other options do we have? I am being told that 'death' or suicide are likely outcomes...I am having a hard time accepting that.

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


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.

If ECT has not worked so far after 11 treatments, it is likely it is not going to work. I did not get better after 7 and quit because I just did not want more damage. I had already started to notice problems after number 6.

I saw my PCP today, and he thought Aricpet might be worth a try. I am sort of scared to try it. What if I try it and then quit. Will my memory get worse after I quit? Also, he said research shows now that extra B6 can cause permanent brain damage for some people. So I quit the b6 but still take the B12.

I would challenge that doctor on that statement! Make him prove it and doses need to cause it.

One cannot make serotonin without B6. The P5P version is better since some people cannot take pyridoxine B6 and convert it to the active form.

Here is a paper showing B6 is protective:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...ubmed_RVDocSum

I have a thread here discussing the potential toxicities of very high dose B6:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread30724.html

The actual number of proven B6 toxicities is very very small..over many many years, and go back to when 500mg a day was used for PMS. (no longer recommended).

I have now started rehab for the cognitive impairments I have. I have gone twice and am first listneing to an audio version of a book to see if I remember; I did okay, and so next was has been to listen to the audio version while following along with reading the book. That was really hard. I tried just reading outloud, and that did not work well.

Zeba