Shock Therapy for Severe Depression

I was terrified when they suggested this for my best friend. Like you said, you see too many movies. But EST is completely different than it was a long time ago. It was hard because she suffered some memory loss as a side effect and she got really frustrated because it didn't work right away, even though they told her it would take multiple rounds to kick in. Then one day she woke up and had total clarity. Her depression was gone! And she couldn't even relate to the person she had been (severely depressed and suicidal) the day before.

I know a woman who underwent shock therapy. She was so depressed, she literally couldn't function on a day to day basis. She had been on all kinds of different medications and was sinking deeper.
She actually had several rounds of the therapy and she is a completely different person now. For the better.
She gets out and socializes, she makes jewelry and travels to fairs to sell it, she says she is working on writing a book. She seems very happy.
Before this, she was almost never seen outside of her house. And, when she was, it was doing strange things like walking in the pouring rain in nothing but a t-shirt and her husband's unlaced boots. She would just walk in circles like that in her yard or in the street. They had a young son and she couldn't care for him so the husband had to time a lot of time off work.
It really was a last ditch attempt to help her.
I can tell you she has no regrets about doing the shock treatments. I know her husband has no regrets. She's back to the world of the living.

It does seem extreme, but I personally know of one instance in which is was very beneficial.

Best wishes.

My best girlfriend has lived through the most horrendous things in her lifetime and she is only 37. Her father raped her from the time she was 4 until she was removed from the house at 13. Her family (5 brothers) didn't believe her nor did her mother and she had NO contact with ANY (aunts, uncles, grandparents) of her family for 20 years. She has battled depression and drug addiction for as long as I have known her.
About 6 years ago my second son was born (I have known her for 10) and heard nothing from her. My feelings were SO hurt. I called and left numerous messages and on one of them sarcastically left my phone number. She called me that very day in tears telling me that she had been forcefully admitted to the hospital almost a month before for depression. The meds they had her on were not working and they would not let her go. Her son was taken from her and sent to live with his dad (who barely ever saw him before that) and she had to do shock therapy.
At first I was a lot like you!! OMG, that's horror movie stuff!!! But, after the first couple "shocks" I noticed a huge change in her, as did she! She did it for about 2 weeks (if my memory serves me correctly) and stayed at the hospital another week and was then released. She has NOT been admitted again.
She has continued therapy with her counselor and has remained upbeat and healthy. I know that for HER shock therapy worked wonders.
L.

My brothers old roommate had undergone shock therapy with AMAZING, positive results. I've never spoken to him about it personally, but my brother has been close friends with this guy for... 10 years? 15 years? And it's made an enormous difference, in a good way. YES it's extreme, NO it's not for everyone, but if your family member has gotten a second or even a third opinion and all those docs have pushed the issue, I'd say it's time.

Ive worked as a psychiatric RN for ten years. ECT is safe and about 99.9% effective. Yes it causes temporary memory loss but its short term like the patient cant remember what they are for lunch that day. Nothing more. and once they are done getting treatments the memory loss goes away. Most people get 6-12 Electro Convulsive Therapy Treatments (ECT) and they get them monday weds friday. Ive seen spectactular results from them.

There is a new for of therapy called electro magnetic stimulation and it is supposed to be far better. Fewer Docs have access but it's worth looking for one who does. I have a family member with similar issues and it has helped. Electro shock therapy can cause other problems and memory loss. Look into alterantives first. There are new techniques for mapping brain activity and matching to others who have had success on certain meds. There is a new deep brain stimulation treatment. There are also fantastic, natural methods of boosting the body's hormones through dietary changes and vitamin supplements. You need to see a more progressive doctor who specialized in preventative medicine. They will start by thoroughly testing all the hormone levels, thyroid etc...

One of our very good church friend's dad has it done on a yearly basis. Usually in the winter time when he doesn't get the natural sunlight. He hasn't had it done so far this year because we haven't had the snow and dreariness that we normal have. He takes pill medication but it doesn't help all the time.

About thirteen years ago, my mother became severely depressed. At first, she was just sleeping a lot. (She'd had a lot of stress during that period of her life: lost her only sister, a friend's son died, my own sister and brother were causing major headaches for the family, she was trying to run a failing business, etc.). I think our family doctor at the time had prescribed sleeping pills, and she became addicted. At the same time, my parents were trying to build a new house, and we had to move to an apartment while it was being built. This just made things worse.

For three years, my mom was in and out of hospitals for inpatient therapy. She was put on every drug known to man. Nothing worked. I was in college at the time, so I wasn't always home to experience this, except for the year after I graduated and moved back home. I remember watching her walk around the apartment holding our bill holder because she was so obsessed about not being able to pay bills. She was in sort of a zombie state. She'd go to bed for a while, get up and walk circles around the apartment, go back to bed, repeat. Once, when she went off her meds cold turkey, she became extremely violent and had to be removed from the house and taken back to the hospital.

When my dad realized nothing was working for her, the option for ECT (Electro-convulsive therapy) was brought up. I think it had been an option before, but my dad was afraid to do it. He realized at that point he had no other choice, except to put her in a permanent mental institution. I had already been married at this point and was living in another city, but I do remember the change it made. My mother still has short term memory loss from it, but she went from non-functioning (at one point, almost in a catatonic type of state) to being able to care for herself and, sometimes, my nephews.

That being said, my mother's quality of life will never be like that of a "normal" person. She has issues with her memory, and I've noticed lately that she seems to be sliding back into her depression. Of course, I'm not living with her, so I don't see how she functions on a daily basis. It's a day to day thing with her. I think maybe subsequent treatments might help, but maybe her therapists don't believe it's necessary right now.

Yes, shock therapy does sound scary, but medicine has advanced to the point that it is no longer the horror it used to be. It's administered in a safe environment by trained physicians. Basically, it triggers a seizure within the body and helps to reset the brain and release certain hormones. I've heard that more than one treatment helps. I can't remember how many treatments my mother had over ten years ago, and I don't know if she'd benefit from more. Good luck to your family member. I hope she finds the treatment that will best help her depression.

I have had 2 family members that had shock therapy for depression. And they were also told the same thing: they are not 100% sure why it works, but it does seem to help. And yes, the actual experience is not fun, but it did help both family members.

You should also make sure of a couple of things: that all your LO's doctor's are aware of what is going on, and that they all know ALL the meds that she is on. Also, she should be seeing a therapist (psychologist) as well as a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist will prescribe meds, but the psychologist is really helpful for talking through stuff.

Print off the studies on B-vitamins and on fish oil (fish oil in particular is pretty well accepted even by the psychiatric community). But for severe depression, fish oil & vitamins are not going to work.

If she wants to feel better, the shock therapy is worth a try. It sounds like she truly is in a bad place.

Also, keep in mind that it can take weeks for a change in meds to show any effect. So just because a change in meds happens doesn't mean the next day, or even next week, the person is going to be "better"--it can take several weeks or longer for the meds to work.