Electo Shock for Depression?

[Sarc]

Indeed a last resort.
My mother has suffered from mild depression off and on since my parent’s divorce nearly 20 years ago. Once her 10 year relationship with a very manipulative, svengali-like individual (finally) came to an end last year, she was alone and faced with the task of attempting reconnection with all of us. Consequently, her depression was at an all time high. It has been a tremendously difficult road; easily the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with. I had to put aside the years of hateful words and commentary directed to me and my family to get mom better. 2 hour phone calls every night, trying my best with what tools I have, talking her off the ledge so to speak were the norm for a solid 6 months.
She took a turn for the worse and landed in the local mental institution, and this time it looked like this was it. Early retirement, assisted living....if she survived. It was not looking good. I happened to be traveling abroad on business when my sister and bil (who are local to her) decided ECT was the way to go. I was angry for not being kept in the loop and terrified that my mom would never be the same. Stumbling on the video posted above helped ease my fears to a point.

I have to say that, thus far, ECT has been a godsend. I am an optimist at heart, but I certainly had no idea she would improve so much. My mom is her old self; outgoing, jovial, and is constantly challenging herself as she approaches 70. I still have reservations and concerns that she will revert back to the dark days, but I think a big component of its success is the support system in place after the procedure. One cannot have ECT performed, go home and sit all alone at home all day expecting a permanent fix. Social interaction and encouragement is extremely important, and we keep in constant contact and interaction to ensure she maintains her progress.

I hope your friend improves.

[Crowbob]

Excellent post, Sarc.

There was a lot of literature suggesting chemically-induced coma (such as glucose-induced diabetic shock) has the same efficacy and 'cure' rate as ECT. That leads me to think the 'shock to the brain' is what works. In addition, it is actually common for appropriately diagnosed depressed people to recover after serious trauma, such as an unsuccessful suicide attempt or vehicular accident.

OTOH, sometimes (as has been argued) the intense display of empathy and hands on care for a depresed individual in the latter circumstance above may precipitate a cognitive-based 'realignement' of a person's worldview resulting in significant lightening of overall mood.

Of course, some manipulative people experience the secondary gain of proving how miserable they are.

IMO worthless opinion, talk therepy is the most successful and very often entirely necessary way of discerning who is what.

Bottom line, whatevr works, works.

[Tobra]

It is still commonly done and as I understand it can be extremely therapeutic

[DanielDudley]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

My grandfather got it (probably 50 years ago) and it helped him. Took some psychology classes at UCLA in the late '70s and they said it worked and really didn't know why. The theory was it makes you forget what's bugging you.

I think it is more like a fundamentally traumatic experience that causes you to modify your behavior in a subconscious effort to avoid future trauma.

At the very least, I think it sends your entire being a signal that things could be worse - MUCH WORSE.

[M.D. Holloway]

I am of no opinion yet, I wanna see how this plays out. Small sample pool so prolly not the best case to establish an opinion.

I did witness my Mother snap my older brother out of depression in the early 70's. she was at her wits end and finally told him to get the heck out of the house and don't come back till you have a job...and she didn't care if it was scrubbing toilets. He came back a few hours later stating he had a job as a clerk at Bradlees department store. She rode him hard for a month but I'll be darned if it didn't work when nothing else seemed to.

I think so much is neuro-chemical and that once you start feeling a certain way, the uptake continues and at some point it becomes natural for your system to sned out 'the bad juice'. I also think that regradless of what is happening that if you keep a positive outlook, even if it is forced that you can manipulate the chemical uptake to occur and stay that way.

Once the body continues to do something for a period of time I think it becomes part of your genetic code then its near impossible to change it.

If this is true then one of my axioms "that people don't change" is because they basically can't do to the new code thats written...

[slodave]

I think in the neighbors case, the doctors were at their wits end on how to treat him, as nothing else had worked and this was the last resort. For whatever reason, it worked when nothing else did.