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Hi Darwin: Have been following this topic with interest, both as a psychiatric nurse and as the ListMember who posted the pduk article. Was going to jump in and offer my 2 cents worth, but see that you (and Charlie) have pretty much said it all, and eloquently. I was ambivalent myself re: ECT and even spoke against it initially in the team meetings we have to decide tratment recommendations for our mental health clients, but have recently changed my mind because, bottom line, it works. Carole --- "Hawkins, Darwin" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Yes, I have seen it and my family has personally > benefited from the > treatment. It certainly does appear awful! Movie films > from the early mental > health days are terrible to watch, but we have come a > long way from those > initial experiments. > > My wife had two nervous breakdowns (three months > confinement each time) > precipitated by post partum depression. The EST (it was > called Electro > Convulsive Therapy back then) plus Insulin Shock Therapy > brought her back to > the real world. She still is and will always be an Acute > Undifferentiated > Schizophrenic, but that can be controlled by medication > (if you can get the > patient to stay on it). Yes, EST does look awful to an > observer as the > treatment used to be administered, but it was not awful > to the patient since > they were immediately rendered unconscious with no pain. > In the present day > procedures, muscle relaxants are given to prevent the > convulsions, a > mouthpiece is inserted just in case to prevent broken > teeth, and the patient > is sedated before the procedure begins. The only slight > drawback I have > observed is about a one day loss of short term memory > (never to be > regained). Long term memory starts returning in about 2 > hours and is fully > back the next day. I would imagine there are lots of > medical procedures > that we would never allow to be performed if we had > already observed or knew > what takes place in the operating or treatment room. > Sometimes ignorance is > bliss. > > These therapies allowed us to practically empty our > mental hospitals and > asylums many years ago. It is sad that the result over > time has been a lot > of homeless people on the streets because of no system in > place to assure > that they keep taking their medications and because of > the civil rights and > other legalities now controlling society. We have no way > of bringing these > suffering people back to a normal life. It is sad that > EST developed the > uninformed stigma that it now has. It is also sad that > someone with a > serious mental health problem usually cannot recognize > their plight because > their world is real to them and the rest of the world is > wrong. It is > extremely difficult to get someone to believe what you > are saying and > observing regardless of how they are perceiving the world > about them. > > I like to thing of EST as a "reboot" of the "computer" in > our head to > restore corrupted and lost files and applications. > > Just one man's opinion based on actual experience and > facts. This is much > more than I ever wanted to say about our personal life, > but I thought it > important to give another perspective to this discussion. > > > ---------- > > From: Greg Sterling[SMTP:[log in to unmask]] > > Subject: Re: Electric shock treatmenets > > > > Have you ever seen anyone receive electric shock > therapy? It's awful. No > > thanks. > > > > Greg > > > > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com