ECT treatment

[kitkatsoppy]

Hi,

 I had 12 rounds of ECT two years ago, and my memory from those days onwards has been horrendous.  I was just wondering if anyone has had any good or bad experiences with the treatment.

[Mod note: we've pinned this thread to the top of the Treatments section, as we have regular inquiries from members about ECT. Other threads detailing members' experiences with ECT are linked to below:

Tired of being depressed now - looking at ECT?

ECT - my experience

My wife has just had ECT - what is the recovery time?

Updated: impending ECT treatment

[danman]

Hi there,

Glad to hear everything is starting off well for you.

Would be very interested to hear whether you are in a public or a private facility for your ECT treatment?

I had a very frustrating experience with a private facility in Melbourne and actually checked myself out after 2 days after being continually frustrated by the lack of care and organisation of the staff.

It sounds like you are getting good treatment and assistance from all the staff which certainly helps a great deal.

Keep me posted

Dan

[kitkatsoppy]

Hi again,

It has now been more than 4 and a half years since I had my ECT treatments. My short term memory is still just as bad as when I received my treatment back then. I still have problems remembering things at work and when I am having simple conversations with people. For example, I always have to ask the person if I said a particular thing to them or not (which is very frustrating for me).

I guess the ECT literally resetted my brain, but it hasn't totally cured my schizophrenia or depression at all. I just guess I will hang in there and see if they have any other medications or whatnot out in the market. However, I don't think I will be young enough to be cured or managed better. Oh well lol

[Ovait]

Hi,

I recently underwent 12 sessions of ECT, the first 9 as unilateral & the last 3 bilateral. I was very wary of having the procedure & even though I was a voluntary inpatient at the time, I was led to believe that if I refused consent it would be taken to the tribunal who would approve it, so I was just wasting time.

Two months after my last session I am still experiencing memory loss ( I have very little memory of the 3 months I spent in hospital), I have word finding difficulties, trouble multitasking, trouble reading - I understand the individual words but the sentence won’t make sense, & trouble dividing my attention particularly in a noisy environment. Unfortunately for me, my job involves me reading & doing 3 things at once in a noisy environment.

I don’t feel that the ECT has made any great improvement but left me with a whole lot of deficits that now threaten my job security.

[StillKicking]

I had 12 ECT sessions in about 2007 and I regret it. There was a lot i didn't know. It was touted as the way to get me back on track quickly and I'd already had around 20 years of struggling with it. I hoped it would be a bit of a miracle cure. Instead it damaged my brain and i haven't worked since. It affected the word area of my brain and i in my job as a technical writer that was kind of important. Even to make internet posts I get frustrated and need to refer to a thesaurus regularly. It did weird things to my sense of smell too but fortunately that abated after a few months. My short term memory was also affected.

I'm not telling anyone they shouldn't do it, as it obviously works for some people or they wouldn't keep doing it. Although while i was an inpatient they kept recording my mood as improving, but that was more from the fact that I was being looked after and daily stressors had reduced so I'm probably recorded as a success. After the treatments i also found out that you're supposed to go for regular follow up treatments but I will never go through that again. I since found out that ECT isn't as effective on atypical depression, which is what I have. I also discovered that i had further diagnoses which if detected earlier and treated would have made a difference. What i needed was practical support, not brain damage that left me permanently scarred.

Make sure it's your informed decision to go into it. Be prepared to lose memory. Ironically the only clear memory of the prior year is them telling me that it might make me forget the morning of each procedure but instead I lost about a year of memory that never returned and it's freaky having people tell you things and showing you photos of stuff you have no memory of. Please do your homework, explore other options and get a second opinion if you're not sure. My treatment-resistant depression remains treatment-resistant. I've also suffered permanent side effects from medication so everything has a risk, just be aware of the risks involved in every treatment so you can make the best possible decision for yourself.

[kitkatsoppy]

Hi yet again - it has now been nearly seven years now since I had ECT treatment.

With my memory, my ability to remember things is vastly improving, but I still have several periods of my life that have been wiped out of my memory. At least though, I have two hobbies of mine that I still enjoy - playing music, and doing maths problems.

I was playing a musical instrument in a couple of bands in 2017 and 2018. I admit that I do still have the ability to play music quite well still, which gives my brain a workout if I am playing a piece of music difficult.

Anyway, I was at a bookstore the other day, and I purchased a maths/calculus textbook. I have no idea why I bought this textbook, but I had a crack at it, and I could actually answer some *not many lol* of the questions in the book! I found out on my own that my memory seems to be working for me again, and that I can solve some maths problems.

Finally, after all of this time, I really can't say where I would be without my ECT treatment being performed way back seven years ago. It was the only thing that the doctors could do, because apparently I was in the too-hard basket. I really hate having periods of my life gone because of my dodgy memory though. I am getting better with names and things like that, but I still have a lot of short term memory trouble when I am talking to somebody face to face.

These days, I am taking 8 different medications for various things, and I have finally been starting to do exercise each day and watching my food for two months now. I do think that exercise has helped me out, and has helped my brain to actually think for once.

Like I said, I really don't know where I would be now if I didn't have ECT performed on me - I would probably have killed myself by now.

[Paw Prints]

Hello everyone,

Reading through these posts I was surprised at how many people regretted getting ECT. For me it was a life saver literally & I'm very glad I had it.

Yes I have some memory problems, I have little memory of when I was on the Psych ward or the following few months. I also have some memory problems with repetitive tasks as my brain doesn't seem to date/time stamp all my memories so for example I often don't know if I have fed the dog or if my memory of feeding him was from another day. I have also forgotten some things that have happened since the ECT, but very few.

I forget things I meant to get when shopping & leave myself notes to remind me of things, but my sister who has never had ECT has the same memory problems & solutions. So how much of my memory problems is ECT & how much is just getting older the culprit.

Before ECT the meds weren't working & I was a danger to myself, since ECT well I'm not cured but now the meds help & I'm not so far down in the dark that I can't see.

Would I ever have it again? The answer is a definite yes if it was thought I needed it.

[Montana]

I've had ECT. I get regular convulsions that must be similar to light epileptic fits or seizures. It's been probably more than a year since my last course and I still get them...

I hope your dog never doesn't get fed on account of your success with ECT. Not really a success for him or her if that's the case.

Has your sister or yourself ever considered different herbs that might be useful in building short term memory capacity?

[Paw Prints]

Hello Montana,

It must be very distressing for you to still be getting convulsions, are there no treatments the Drs can offer that would help you manage/stop them, such as epilepsy meds.

My dog would never be not fed, apart from him nagging me I also mark on the calendar in the kitchen each time I feed him so I have a way of confirming each feed. I find my memory lapses are worse when I have not been eating/sleeping well.

Hope you find a way to control the seizures.

Best Wishes

Paw Prints

[Montana]

Alright, so I let the doctors give me epilepsy then prescribe me epilepsy medication? My weak understanding is that if you are sleep deprived, which I was, they shouldn't even let you sign the form to have it. My response to it was quite different to most of the other patients. I'd also be interested in seeing a study on the contrasting effects of laying on of the hands vs ECT to see if they results differ. My belief, is that it's the close contact with humans and the care that makes the difference not the ECT. I get the history of ECT and a slap in the face can wake anybody up but I'm sure there are gentler ways to do it...

[Shan94]

Hello

I just had 12 treatments of ECT about a month ago, and am struggling to remember any of these year, is that supposed to happen? My dr said my memory when I'm undergoing the treatment and two weeks either side will be affected but it's still causing issues now. The worst thing though is that nothing improved after the treatments, in fact I'd say I am feeling even worse