4 ms·
Depression itself is, I suspect, something rather like cancer—the underlying problems can come from many things, but the symptoms may appear to be similar. ECT
by duaneb 11y ago
Depression itself is, I suspect, something rather like cancer—the underlying problems can come from many things, but the symptoms may appear to be similar.
ECT worked for me, but probably wouldn't work for everyone. Most treatments may be described like that—IMHO, the only universal treatment is therapy. This doesn't mean we should throw the rest of the treatments out the window. If the hammer works for the job, why look for a nailgun that doesn't exist?
- sleepychu 11y agoI'm not making any assertions about your condition. Do you have some confidence that the ECT worked for a reason other than placebo?
- duaneb 11y ago> Do you have some confidence that the ECT worked for a reason other than placebo? I found great relief from it that seemed distinctly different from before the ECT. I haven't found much reason to think about it more than that—I'm not in the business in prescribing treatment, but I'm grateful for what I did find. Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar has an excellent description of the aftermath of the treatment that roughly aligned with my own, albeit I experienced it much slower than how it was depicted in the novel.
- jdietrich 11y agoECT is often seen as an archaic and barbaric treatment, but there is reasonably good evidence to suggest that it is an effective short-term treatment for severe depression. The question isn't really whether it works, but whether the benefits are worth the risk of side effects. That is largely a personal decision for a patient to make rather than a matter of public policy. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ta59/chapter/4-Evidence-and-interpretation https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ta59/chapter/4-Evidence-and...