I have had bipolar most of my life and with my last episode I was having ECT treatments and then got (my very 1st) MS symptoms. I have been researching and and the literature also mentions that ECT could initiate or aggravate MS symptoms. Has anyone here experienced similar experiences or has anyone with the duel diagnosis (of bipolar and MS) have ECT without these complications. Up until this happened, I was going to agree to do maintenance ECT, but not if this is going to happen again. I have been having ECT for 10 yr for my severe bipolar episodes and I never had experienced this!!!

Hi Mickey. Welcome to the MS section of NeuroTalk.

I have known some peeps with both MS and Bipolar, but the connection,
if there is one, I don't know. Nor do I know of a connection to ECT
treatments?

Hi,

I snipped from these two articles, for you. Sounds, like ECT should be the last thing, that anyone should do to an MS patient. One of the articles, I believe the second one, mentions that 'Anti-convulsants' work better for those with MS and Bi-Polar, which is the exact opposite of what ECT does.

Hope you are able to find others with similar dual diagnosis like yourself. Depression, seems to be the predominant, mental illness that is co-morbid with MS. Even from the first article, Anxiety, seems to be under-diagnosed in patients with MS. Of the two, I have both.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2706287/

Bipolar symptoms may precede other neurological signs of MS, and there have been reports of MS presenting as frank mania. [66–67] Affective lability, in particular, may occur in tandem with an MS exacerbation. Some researchers have hypothesized that the comorbidity of bipolar disorder may be related to the location of the MS lesions.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3002616/
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) may be used to treat severe drug-refractory depression, but there appears to be a risk of triggering a relapse of MS, and the presence of active brain lesions on MRI before treatment is a potential risk factor for neurological relapse following ECT

Thank you Gladys. I didn't know all of that.

Thank you Gladys and Sally for the replies and the welcome. Gladys, the articles are wonderful! I even printed them off for my psychiatrist, lol.