How much does it cost?

I've had a total of 25 ECT treatments (15 initial, 10 maintenance and going). I don't know if it's of any use, but I've kept an online journal since the beginning. http://alittlespark.wordpress.com

I had ECT 13 years ago. It made me lose nearly 3 years of memory of my life prior to the shock treatments. It did not help me at all, the memory loss made me even more depressed.However,I am told that my memory loss is extreme,that most people don't lose that much time. I also know 2 people that it helped,though more in the short than long term.(Stopped them from being extremely suicidal.)It comes with risks for everyone though,so please do some good research--like stories from people who are both for and against ECT.
If you any questions or anything please p.m. me. Good luck to you.

ECT has a bad reputation because it goes far back .. when it was not used properly. It is now HIGHLY modernized .. extremely tolerable and a very high success rate in relieving chronic clinical depression. That comes with a price of some memory loss which CAN be permanent.

ECT can be a good alternative when medication simply does not work and the depression is severe.

There is another treatment which is similar but does not use electric current ... it uses magnetic forces .. it is known as TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation).

I believe both treatments are refined enough where they can effect specific areas of the brain .. whereas EARLY ECT jolted the hell out of the entire brain. Neither TMS or modern ECT is anything like that at all.

If medication has not helped you and you are getting desperate, talk to your doctor about both ECT and TMS.

with modern ECT .. they can take the C out.

ECT doesn't work for everyone, but then neither does medication. It is used when you are medication intolerant, and of all the treatments available, it has the highest success rate. It's not done like it was 30 years ago, when they didn't use general anesthesia, and zapped both sides of the brain. Its much safer now. I'd do it if I was still cycling in and out of major depressive episodes. One other thing you could try and that is to get your thyroid tested, and your testosterone tested. After several years in and out of hospitalizations I finally asked my doc to test my testosterone. It was way below range and they started my on hormone replacement therapy (yeah, its not just for women, men go through a biological process called "andropause" and it can happen to any man over 40. Once I started on steroids, my depression went into remission and has stayed that way for almost a year now. Just a thought. If everything checks out, then consider ECT if medications don't work.

I am going to do some real babbling here .. not sure it will mean anything.

Our mental state is whatever we have 'learned'. As we 'learn' from experiences, the brain CREATES logical connections. Sometimes those connections cause negative results .. such as depression.

When a man spends 8 years in a North Viet Nam prison, he SHOULD be depressed .. probably for the rest of his life. If those connections can be DISconnected .. he does not have to spend his life in depression.

Reply 23 continued:

ECT in a somewhat uncontrolled manner but recenly highly improved, disconnects those connections.

It stands to reason that those disconnections will cause loss of memory .. which is actually the whole idea .. to 'erase' aspects of connections that cause depression.

Seems that some loss of memory is necessary in order to cure (some) depression.

Just thinkin.

and apparently, TMS does the same thing (?).