Dear Jan -

I'm sorry, but not sure that I'm entirely following. Where short-term memory loss issue is apparently temporary, I am assuming that the return of the knee pain has been particularly discouraging. Is that correct?

If so, let me be forward enough to suggest something of a paradox. And here I don't mean to be intrusive, but if the return of your physical pain is largely driving your decision to opt out out of futher ECT therapy, do you have any sense of the extent to which your affect is playing a role in the weighting of the knee pain in your decision making? As opposed, for instance, to hanging in there a couple of more rounds just to see what happens, where you've already gotten substantial pain relief, bearing in mind the finding of Wasan, Artin and Clark that the analgesic and anti-depressive effects of ECT are substantially independent.

Just total speculation on my part, so take it for whatever it's worth. I wish you nothing but good things and a speedy recovery from your short-term memory loss, and my thanks for your courage in sharing your experience with us.

Mike