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Study: Electroshock therapy more successful for depression than ketamine

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Re: Study: Electroshock therapy more successful for depression than ketamine

#121
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most states have provisions for involuntary mental health treatment. Arizona's laws for forced mental health treatment are in ARS Title 36, Chapter 5: https://www.azleg.gov/arsDetail/?title=36 As soon as the doctors got their order for involuntary treatment in November 2015, they cornered my friend and injected her with a time-release version of haloperidol, then released her to her mother's house. A day and a half l…

> All the anti-dopamine drugs are terrible. Some of the second-generation drugs that are forced on people are much worse than plain old haloperidol. The poor doctors are just implementing their training. Tragic. Haloperidol has one of the highest rates of side-effects[1], like permanent movement disorders, in its class, and it is neurotoxic[2]. Movement disorders like tardive dyskinesia don't seem like a good time. S…

My friend says she's 'allergic' to olanzapine (Zyprexa). I think it turned her into a zombie?

I think aripiprazole (Abilify) is the least-bad of the antipsychotics. None of them work when the psychosis is actually caused by malnutrition, cocaine, meth amphetamine, or alcohol.

Injection of these drugs is a form of violence.

Re: Study: Electroshock therapy more successful for depression than ketamine

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're depressed, which has already destroyed your creativity and ability to learn. Nothing has worked. Your option is to ECT, which may help, or have adverse side effects. Would you try it? If you've not got much to lose, why not? It's not as if suicide is suddenly no longer an option afterwards.

> which has already destroyed your creativity and ability to learn Don't think that's necessarily the case.

Loss of focus and difficulty retaining new information are common symptoms for major depressive episodes.

Re: Study: Electroshock therapy more successful for depression than ketamine

#123
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most states have provisions for involuntary mental health treatment. Arizona's laws for forced mental health treatment are in ARS Title 36, Chapter 5: https://www.azleg.gov/arsDetail/?title=36 As soon as the doctors got their order for involuntary treatment in November 2015, they cornered my friend and injected her with a time-release version of haloperidol, then released her to her mother's house. A day and a half l…

That sounds like a horrible experience, and I hope you friend is being treated better now. To be charitable and more specific, If you are stable enough there's nothing technically stopping you from not taking prescribed medication and self medicating - as long as you remain stable enough to not warrant involuntary treatment. The obvious risk is if your prescribed medication (or a combination of prescribed and self pr…

> From this comment it sounds like there's a lot you're leaving out of this story

There's more than can be covered in a little comment.

I have the psychiatrists' September 2015 affidavits, filed in support of their petition for involuntary treatment. They say, essentially, "patient expects us to believe she was psychotic because she was drinking 2 bottles of liquor a day, and using cocaine. We know this is not the case because we previously got her 'stabilized' in 2008 and 2010 on haloperidol. She obviously does not appreciate that she is broken and requires anti-psychotics for the rest of her life."

My videos from August 2015 prove that she was actually fine before she ran out of alcohol, and that whatever deterioration the doctors think they're treating is entirely caused by palliative psychiatric drugs.

Re: Study: Electroshock therapy more successful for depression than ketamine

#124
post #23

My friend figured out for herself, when she was in her 30's, that she's a poor methylator who can't turn the food fortification folic acid into a usable form of Vitamin B-9. She once told me that adding L-Methylfolate to her routine was like flipping a switch from "depressed" to "not-depressed". But the doctors had already decided she was being "stabilized" by the anti-psychotic prescriptions they forced on her, so t…

I find your conclusions from this specific scenario extremely dangerous and would warn others against generalising too far. I have reason to be in no doubt at the issues with mental health diagnosis, but speculating and generalisation is not useful. To cite this, and the medical consensus of professionals and other studies: > Meaning: Although ECT may be more efficacious than ketamine in the acute phase, _treatment o…

My goal was to point out that neither ECT nor Ketamine will help if a person is a poor methylator who is malnourished on account of their consumption of folic acid.

Re: Study: Electroshock therapy more successful for depression than ketamine

#125

aren't the side effects of ECT quite severe though? "loss of creativity, drive and energy. difficulty concentrating. loss of emotional responses. difficulty learning new information."

I only know one ECT patient personally but the side effects were horrible enough for me to wonder why it is even legal. The brutality of the treatment and lack of after treatment is astounding.

It's been 12 years since her ECT for post partum depression and she still has memory losses and a completely changed personality (agression is one).

Re: Study: Electroshock therapy more successful for depression than ketamine

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ECT on the other hand has very few recreational users. I imagine the physical effects of ECT must be very harsh and difficult for the body.

Are there any recreational users?

I was being a bit facetious, but surely in this world of ~8billion people there are some freaky recreational users out there.

Re: Study: Electroshock therapy more successful for depression than ketamine

#129

Ketamine is a prescription medicine that can be taken oral, intranasal or IV drip. ECT is an inpatient procedure that need one anesthesiologist and one psychiatrist plus nurses to administer, two to three times weekly for three to four weeks. Who pays for the healthcare, definitely want to try the former and use the latter only if the former works poorly.

ECT also requires general anesthetic so for every treatment there is a much greater risk than for Ketamine.

How do we know that the multiple sessions of general anesthetic isn’t doing the legwork against the depression? I read the article and there were very scant details.

Re: Study: Electroshock therapy more successful for depression than ketamine

#130

I’m in a deep depression, I’d try it. Wiping my memory would be the best gift I could get.

Go to a psychiatrist and try ask for ketamine. It has the same effect of detaching you from trauma. It’s like putting your brain through a car wash.
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