The Truth about ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy)

An ECT patient is prepared as a surgical patient would be prepared for an operation. Like a surgical patient, ECT is administered in an operating room. An IV drip of fluids is started and a medicine to dry up your saliva is added to the IV by a nurse. You then must wait in the holding area for your turn to receive the ECT treatment. (One note, it has been my experience that they do not allow you to bring your glasses with you right from the beginning. You must leave them with your caretaker or in your hospital room. For my treatment I was asked to change in to a hospital gown and a pair of hospital issued socks.)

Once situated in the operating room, a crew of specially trained men and women perform the final set of preparations. A heart monitor with sticky tape and leads fastened to each one is stuck to your chest and upper body. The application of a wet sticky fluid is sprayed in your hair in two different locations and is an important part of the preparation, although somewhat difficult to wash out of the hair. The fluid serves as a conductor for the electricity and allows for a good electrical contact between the ECT apparatus, and from one temple to the other temple of your head by way of the brain. In turn this will cause a good convulsion and reset the neurotransmitters in the brain, which is the main goal of an ECT treatment.

The anesthesiologist will keep a close eye on your blood pressure and administer the proper dose of sleeping medicine into your IV, consequently, in less than ten seconds you will fall into a deep sleep. The ECT doctor then delivers the prescribed electric current to the head/brain. This shock sends the patient into a convulsion/seizure, which is how the neurotransmitters in the brain are reset and encourages the proper secretion of serotonin. After your treatment, you will be taken to the recovery area where you are closely monitored by the nursing staff. Like other minor surgeries you will not remember this part as you will wake up sometime after your arrival in the recovery room. When you do wake up you are carefully attended to by an experienced medical team. After a while, I was given a glass of juice and treated to a wheelchair ride to my destination.

The ECT treatment will take around four hours on an average day. Often Electroconvulsive therapy is effective in six to nine treatments, or one series. The treatment's longevity depends on how well the patient interacts with the seizure or in resetting the neurotransmitters. ECT can be administered on an out-patient basis, although someone should remain with the patient for up to twelve hours after the treatment. For most people this procedure leaves a short-term memory loss and a moderate headache for the remainder of the day. Therefore, the right balance of chemicals passing from one cell to the next greatly influences the impulses of the patient's mental actions and reactions.

Detailed knowledge of how this phenomenon actually works is not known. In fact eighty-percent of all seizures happen without an explanation. Although Electroconvulsive seizures are induced, exactly how the seizure accomplishes a betterment for the depressed person is unknown. Unlike the side effects of prescription drugs used to stabilize those suffering from depression, ECT has no known long-term side effects on the patient. Only on rare occasions will a patient be able to cut back on their normal medications after receiving an ECT series.

Unfortunately, it is not likely this treatment will allow the patient to stop taking their medication all together. It has been my experience that most likely the series will have to be repeated again sometime in the future. Because of my experience with depression and ECT, I must alert you to the fact that I have developed short and long-term memory problems. I have witnessed other patients who prescribe to a "maintenance" program (that is, a ECT series routinely taken once a month or every two months) who seem in my opinion to look and act catatonic. Not all but the majority of these patients would fall in the class of elderly I no longer receive ECT, treatments and I am labeled treatment-resistant (untreatable).

Over the years, I became convulsive tolerant and needed high dosages of caffeine injected in my IV in order to seizure. As far as recommending ECT? The procedure worked for me at first, and my depression was lessened but was not taken away. During this time I was able to work, yet as time went on I needed more frequent treatments as the ECT benefits faded a way quicker. As you can imagine I have not worked in quite sometime. ECT work's differently for everyone but it is not the answer. We must do all which is in our power to let doctor's, insurance companies, and the public know that we need a higher quality of research to fight this beast called depression.