Mom had Electric shock treatment.

[Mary Rack <mrack@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dale and others -

My mother (76/at least 6) has had numerous ECT treatments.  They were 
recommended by her neuro,a PD specialist at KU, and by the psychiatrist she 
sees at the NH; actually prescribed and performed by the psychiatrist in order 
to get Medicare coverage.

I've read that there is no use doing ECT without concommitant clozaril therapy 
(see http://www.priory.co.uk/journals/psych/ectol.htm).  Since I was going to 
have to fight the shrink to get clozaril (medical turf war?) and zyprexa had 
just come out,  I requested and got zyprexa for Mom.

Results were good but not excellent.  Both PD symptoms and depression improved. 
 The follow-up sessions were absolutely necessary to prevent rapid and enormous 
decline.

ECT isn't what it used to be.  Patients are completely anesthetized (sp?), the 
current is not as strong, and often treatments are unipolar rather than 
bipolar.  Confusion is the main side effect we saw, and it could last a few 
days to a few weeks.

I resisted ECT for a long time.  In my investigations, I learned that it has 
apparently become the treatment of choice for many elderly patients with 
intractible psychiatric symptoms.  One major advantage seems to be the very 
fact that ECT is NOT a drug and therefore avoids issues of drug interactions 
etc.

Dale, is your support group member still undergoing treatment?  Is he 
benefiting?  From my experience, it seems like a reasonable thing to try.

Oh, about cost:  Mom's initial treatment was in-patient, 3 times weekly, 4 
weeks.  Medicare paid for essentially everything (there's a $900 or so 
deductible for hospitalization, and co-pays for charges by docs etc).  Monthly 
follow-up treatments however are very expensive because of high co-pays.  
Secondary insurance picked up for us after a $2500 deductible.

Mary Rack