ECT, Canada, and Saying the Unthinkable
![mouthguard_1[1].jpg](http://trouble.philadelphiaweekly.com/archives/mouthguard_1%5B1%5D.jpg)
Many people know I had ECT and it didn’t work for me and I think the industry that promotes it is wildly corrupt and I’m deeply suspicious of its use. However, I must say that I have seen people respond to it — especially those who have been catatonic or close to it.
The procedure has had consistently popularity in Canada as well as the U.S. From this week’s CBC News:
A report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal last week shows the procedure is commonly used to treat drug-resistant depression in seniors.
However, critics of the procedure believe its usage should be stopped, and it is a painful procedure that leads to brain damage.
On Sunday, about a dozen protesters rallied in Ottawa, calling for a ban of the procedure.
Protest organizer Sue Clark-Wittenberg had electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) 35 years ago, and says it has kept her from getting an education and a good job.
“The bottom line is electroshock always damages the brain. Electroshock always causes memory loss,” she says.
I’m going to do something very out of character for me, and that is defend ECT just a wee little bit. First of all, though ECT is annoying, disruptive, headache-inducing and nauseating, it is not painful. It certainly was 35 years ago, when Clark-Wittenberg got ECT, but now — with the use of IV drugs (yum … drugs) — no pain is involved. Also, the body does not violently convulse because it’s in a state of drug-induced relaxation. So, though I dislike ECT, I can’t say it’s painful. It’s not.
As for brain damage, it depends how you define that. Do people who have epilepsy suffer brain damage each and every time they have a seizure? I don’t know the answer to that because I’m not a doctor, but I wonder. Does memory loss always equal brain damage? Hey docs! Write and let me know.
I know many of you will be surprised by this point of view coming from me.
I’ll tell you why. I know a woman — let’s call her Jane — who was in her 70s and depressed. She had suffered one other clinical depression in her life, but had otherwise been fine. This time, the depression would not go away, despite endless rounds of medication combinations. Things got so bad, she was unable to leave her bed and had to be hospitalized simply to get the basics: food and hygiene. She was unable to talk, walk, eat, go to the bathroom, or otherwise function. She was inert. Her family was distraught. Her body was shutting down.
Doctors pitched the idea of ECT. Naturally, everyone was very upset. Shock treatments? One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? The family was terrified. But what were the options? They were exhausted from watching her slip away. They were bereft. So they gave the go-ahead.
And I bet you know the end of this story. Jane came back to life in a completely miraculous way. It took a little time –I’m not saying she was jumping around like Robert De Niro in Awakenings – but the ECT saved her life. She came out of the hospital and is the same old Jane as she was before — only without the depression. She’s a delightful person who talks about that time in her life with complete wonder. It’s hard for her to imagine it happened to her, though she did do maintenance ECT for about a year. Now she doesn’t do it at all, and considers depression a ghost of her past. Or hopes it is, anyway. But if it comes back, she won’t hesitate to do ECT again. It wasn’t painful to her and her memory loss was, she says, a worthwhile sacrifice.
So there you have it. An ECT success story from Liz Spikol!
Despite criticism, electroshock therapy commonly used in depression
[Pictured is a mouthguard sold by Somatics, one of the major ECT machine manufacturers. You wear the mouthguard when you have ECT.]
liz | 2:37 PM | Uncategorized
I have schizophrenia and manic-depression and had ECT twice. The first time it was voluntary and more or less successful.At least, I was able to be discharged from the hospital. The second time it was by court order. I managed to get discharged but this was followed by an extremely serious self-inflicted injury intended to precede self-immolation.
The worst part of ECT to me was the precipitous plunge into unconsciousness. Also the sense upon waking that anything could have happened in the hour’s time — it felt like a second — I was “asleep.” Indeed, much had happened, as I knew perfectly well. Electricity had been pumped through my brain and a grand mal seizure induced! All this made simply falling asleep at night terrifying. The first time I had ECT it was worth it. I might not have survived without it. But the second time, to be forced by probate court to undergo it against my will was — well, you can only imagine the terror struck in my long bones. I could barely walk to the ECT suite or get up on the table…
I too know others who swear by its efficacy, but I myself would never voluntarily do it again. My memory, despite reassurances of an only temporary disruption, has never recovered and my few memories are still too horrific to allow another repeat.
I’ve never had ECT. For a while, I considered it as an eventual possibility, but decided against it. My decision was based in no small part on your YouTube videos: I had a chance to listen to your experiences and decide whether or not I’d someday wish to share them.
That considered, I wouldn’t speak out against something that has helped as many people as ECT has helped. I do agree with, and am thankful for, people who speak openly about their experiences (not just with ECT, but other therapies as well) – this enables the rest of us to make a more informed decision about what options we’re willing to pursue.
I just learned about you and your site from Huffpo. Since my son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder a few years ago, the two of us have both worked hard to be “out of the closet” about his mental illnes, which runs rampant in both my and his father’s families. But, still, it’s hard. He has tried many conventional treatments, some with horrible side effects. But he has found great success through a vitamin/supplement program. Check out http://www.truehope.com for more info. I know people think “vitamin cures” are bogus. I was a school psychologist for many years and certainly would have been one of the skeptical – until I saw the changes this treatment has made and continues to make in his life. Good luck with your work. Mental illness deserves respect, just like cancer or any other disease. Until we get there as a society, people will continue to live in shame needlessly. Thanks!
Dear Liz,
I have just spent the last couple days obsessively reading your work (and watching the videos). You really are doing something wonderful, and doing it well.
But I am writing you to ask for advice: although in retrospect the disease has been with us for some time, my partner was diagnosed several months ago with BP after a severe manic episode.
She’s been in therapy and on meds, but I have the obvious question: how do I best help? And, I have a more specific one I am coming to you for: how do I best help her without adding to her perception that she is being attacked? (I.e. when I talk to her about the illness, she is angry, when I do not talk to her, she is upset, when I encourage her to go to the doctor, I’m attacking her, when I don’t I’m not supportive, etc. You know the score, I think.)
/not sure if this makes sense. Please post a response or contact me if you can.
//I recognize your fame may not allow for time to address my question, but thought I’d try nonetheless… ; )
I’m a former Philly gal writing to you from my home in Italy. Saw your article in the Times and recognized your name right away. Also saw the Huff Post. I’ve been watching you on youtube, too. Glad to know you Liz. What you’re doing is wonderful. Grazie!
The only thing I can say about ECT, is I was once inpatient in a psych ward and met an extremely depressed woman, as most of us were. Before her ECT, although depressed, she could engage you in a fairly pleasant conversation. Then she went for the ECT treatment, and it really scared me and freaked me out when she returned, because she was a total zombie. They explained to me that she would be that way for “the rest of the day”. However, she never returned to her previous state the entire week I was there. She basically seemed catatonic after the ECT. She did tell me prior to the treatment, that she has it done once a year, and that gives her freedom from the depression for about 9 months. And she said it was worth it to her.
Regarding ECT and brain damage, I know nothing about it, but I would ask, don’t all of us who have been on psychiatric meds for a number of years know that the drugs cause brain damage? I mean, certainly and without doubt they cause severe memory loss. They also cause loss of cognitive function. Presently, I am suffering through absolute hell after being taken off benzodiazepines, to which I had become addicted without my knowledge. The kicker is, the last guy to prescribe them to me for years, was an “addiction specialist”. I had no idea what would occur if/when you try to come off these drugs. It truly borders on the criminal what doctors are doing to people with benzo’s. I feel probably as strongly about this as you do ECT. I was on your site this week, and watching some of your YouTube videos when I came across many videos of persons with benzo withdrawal syndrome. And I just sat and cried watching them. I finally knew I wasn’t alone; there were many other people going through what I am going through. And it started to make me really, really angry. I think the whole psychiatric system with all the drugs that they constantly feed us is way out of whack. It’s just easier for them to try to use the drugs to take the place of old fashioned therapy, which seems to be more helpful in the long run. Therapy is hard, no doubt about it. But you can’t ever get better by letting some doctor feed you drugs constantly and have you looking and feeling like a zombie. Many people I have talked to regarding benzo withdrawal, have referred to being on benzo’s for years as “chemical lobotomy”, and I really must agree. I have so much more clarity now, even though I’m going through withdrawal. People have told me I was a zombie, for years. It’s very sad and very disturbing to me. Something needs to be done about this problem. One of the many problems facing folks with mental health issues.
“Something needs to be done about this problem.”
Yep!
We know all the problems that “treatments” are creating. Psychiatrists keep on denying and covering the harms or pretending they are not that great.
Discussions by people who are able to talk about their problems are being held and sometimes becoming a battlefield of extremisms.
Guess we are far from finding a solution.
When I first got sick 15 or so years ago, I did not respond to medication. 12 ECTs later (these treatments never bothered me, except that a few weeks of my life got lost) the medication worked and I haven’t had an ECT since. As a last resort they were a complete lifesaver. I experienced none of the problems about which you spoke. So once again, everything works differently for different people.
Hi, I am a member of MindFreedom and I correspond with Sue. I had involuntary electroshock in 2006. Effects included headache, jawache, amnesia, falling out of a wheelchair immediately after the treatment, and nightmares. Presently, I have posttraumatic stress disorder as a result. Nocebo effect was probable. I finally pretended to get happier so the doctors would release me. If the doctors believed the treatment worked on my depression, as they expected, they were using confirmation bias and positive outcome bias. I suspect there are other patients who pretend or pretended the treatment made them get better so doctors would stop electroshocking them. Nocebo effect and confirmation bias are potential aspects of involuntary electroshock that need to be discussed more by doctors. I feel that involuntary electroshock is a form of physical assault and law should classify it as such.
My grandmother had ECT back in the 1950’s and 1960’s when it wasn’t nearly as humane. Despite some of the memory problems it caused her…which were told in a series of family stories…it was about the only thing that knocked her out of psychotic depression that had kept her in inpatient treatment for almost 12 years. She was able to work…move into a group home…and though she never regained custody of my mother…she was a very loving grandmother in her way. I don’t know that I’d ever have been able to have a relationship with her otherwise…because her behavior was so unpredictable otherwise…she spent the majority of her time in the hospital sedated.
I think ECT should be a treatment of last resort…and have high hopes for some of the vagal nerve stimulation studies going on now…that eventually they will find a replacement for it.
I too was inpatient for depression and in a ward with several people receiving ECT treatment. The most unusual thing was introducing myself to people every few days. I did not notice any sort of “zombification” that was not a result of the sedation used in the procedure. For those of us…like myself…where depression and mental illness runs in the family…well…we need to keep our minds open.
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