The best information in health care is from patients who have been there. Those who underwent treatment, suffer from a certain illness. It's the kind of hands on experience physicians can't deliver. On this blog I have collected some examples of these "hands on experiences". Some recent posts were written about ECT by them with hands on experience. Aqua on Vicarious Therapy wrote a post on ECT and media portrayals of depression treatment options. She is irritated by the negative portrayal of ECT in the media. It irritates me, (and does not help me explain potential treatments to concerned family .....read more »

This courageous young woman Rachel Star (on twitter) tells about the negative an positive aspects of ECT, a year later. Very impressive story from someone who has been there and is getting along. A kind of sequel of a video at the beginning of this year just before and during the course of ECT on this blog: Hands on experience on video about electroshock therapy. A young woman and her mother on this video about ECT. Very impressive story about having ECT, side-effects and how she improved on ECT. No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts .....read more »

Told you earlier this year about an excellent blog of someone undergoing Maintenance ECT at the moment: Jumpstarting a life with a little sparkle to the head. After the fourth lesson there is now a fifth ECT lesson: After ECT treatment continues: I know that by the time we’re considering ECT, we are barely able to make it through the day, but I think it’s better to ask and know upfront what turns your life could take post-ECT rather than be surprised by something that’s already been documented that it might happen. And even a sixth ECT lesson: Communication is key If you .....read more »

This week we had to treat a patient with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). He had a pacemaker. The cardiologist offered to be there during the first treatment to see how things were going with the pacemaker during ECT. Everything went just fine except for the astonishment of the cardiologist. He was flabbergasted about the ECT procedure. He never realized that his ideas and fantasies were far beyond reality. He still had "one flew over the cuckoo's nest" in his mind. Moreover, he now better understood the challenges faced during ECT. Heart rate and blood pressure can increase for a short while. This .....read more »

Found another excellent blog of someone undergoing ECT. Besides writing about his or her experiences with ECT there are also posts on other topics as well such as depression, mental health rsources etc. ECT lessons I've learned #4, write them down: When I went through ECT the first time around, I wrote down my passwords to the various online accounts that I have on a sheet of paper. This advice came from the book Shock by Kitty Dukakis and Larry Tye. It’s a great safeguard measure, and it was probably good to have my memory refreshed about those passwords anyway. Keep .....read more »

// The major recent enhancements to ECT technique are: Right Unilateral electrode placement. The cognitive side-effects of ECT such as retrograde and anterograde amnesia are significantly less compared to Bilateral electrode placement. Brief pulse stimulus currents. The characteristics of the electrical stimulus affect the effectiveness and cognitive outcomes of the seizure. Sine wave stimuli have been replaced with rectangular pulses on modern ECT devices, leading to a substantial decrease in cognitive effects Improved an­esthesia techniques makes it possible to regulate the cardiac output during ECT when necessary The “dose titra­tion” technique to individualize treatment stimulus dosing The discovery of the dose-response relationship between electrical .....read more »

Watch If You Forget @ Yahoo! Video A young woman and her mother on this video about ECT. Very impressive story about having ECT, side-effects and how she improved on ECT. She also has a website The Amazing Rachel Star Hey, I’m Rachel Star! I am a lot of things: stunt girl, producer, visionary, rapper, writer, mastermind, a cuddly form of evil, poet, and schizophrenic. I work with different TV shows around the world and I love creating and working on all forms of entertainment. No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. ..read more »

Compared to 1999 and 2002 data from a recent survey in 2006 show an overall decline in the number of ECT applications and the number of patients treated in the United Kingdom over the 7-year period between 1999 and 2006. An increasing proportion of patients were treated under the Mental Health Act (1983). Clinical implications The number of ECT clinics is likely to continue to decrease and psychiatrists may have decreasing experience of treating patients with ECT. In The Netherlands there is an opposing trend. In the past decades the number of clinics preforming ECT has increased and the number of patients being .....read more »

The last systematic review of this topic was in 1994. According to this recent review ECT does seem to be effective for treating mental illness during pregnancy and the risks of adverse events are low. It should be considered in pregnant women with severe mental illness such as psychotic symptoms, catatonia or strong suicidal urges. Why is this important? The most common mental illness during pregnancy is major depressive disorder. It is estimated that 9% of pregnant patients suffer from major depressive disorder Untreated depression is linked to poor maternal and neonatal outcomes including poor weight gain during pregnancy, higher risk of .....read more »

I had the pleasure and honor to be interviewed by Merely Me on MyDepressionConnection.com, one of the bloggers from HealthCentral. See writes for at least three blogs that I could find. Mostly about depression and Multiple Sclerosis. She did a great job, must read a lot about ECT and relating subjects. You can read her profile here. Her blog about Multiple Sclerosis is at MultipleSclerosisCentral.com. She is on my blogroll with her personal blog because she writes personal and magnificent about difficult subjects. Check it out No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. ..read more »