Australian and New Zealand Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Treatment of Depression
While working on a new Dutch Guideline for ECT I discovered this guideline: Australian and New Zealand Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Treatment of Depression.
You can download the complete guideline (pdf 1.1 mb) or a summary. ECT is the fourth option in the treatment of depression in this guideline. They suggest to start with unilateral treatment unless the patient’s prior response or urgency dictate otherwise. They even state that long-term maintenance ECT is not proven benefit. This made me wonder when this guideline was installed: 2004. We in The Netherlands are not doing that bad at all when considering our guidelines for the treatment of depression and ECT. Far more eye for the wish of the patient and symptoms, severity of illness of the depressed patient. In case of severe or psychotic depression ECT can be performed as first option
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March 20, 2008 @ 7:01 am
I am suffering from depression from 2 months.I think it is not a severe depression,but my doctor suggested for ECT.
This stuff helped me a lot in not opting for ECT.I was not suffering from major depression…
Then i went on gathering some useful resources for the treatment of depression,and finally got one.I followed the easy steps,and today just after a month i recovered from depression naturally.
keep up the good work,
james
March 20, 2008 @ 5:11 pm
I admire your struggle with depression. I think your right, ECT is most effective with melancholic depression. There are other solutions as well, please keep us informed about your resources.
Regards Dr Shock