electroconvulsive therapy

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Anyone heard of using ECT to help depression in people with asperger's? I have tried meds but nothing works.

its on the same level as lobotomy's.

It helps temporarily... Best to get therapy sessions talking to a qualified person that KNOWS ASD's!! !
And some good meds in the mean time.

ECT is really a very last ditch effort....
I think nowadays just used when actively suicidal and psychotic at the same time!

Psychiatrists used to give ECT to Asperger's Autists all the time - back in the 1960s and 1970s. At that time, there was no diagnosis of "Asperger's Disorder." Generally speaking, what is now called Asperger's Disorder was regarded as a type of Childhood Schizophrenia.

I was one of them. I received a battery of ECTs in 1967 at 11 years old.

However, ECTs are never used with Autism anymore. They are usually given for depression.

if you don't mind, could you tell me if you believe that this treatment dulled your mentality in any way? and what do you think about TCMS?

The ECTs resulted in about a year of almost total amnesia. For instance, I had to relearn arithmetic. Other than that, they had no effect. The memory came back.

I am not an expert, but my understanding is that the research on TCMS, controlling for placebo, has not been very promising. However, my knowledge could also be out of date.

it's coldly comforting to know, then, that ECT is closer to hitting the reset button than to being hit by a sledgehammer.

I have a friend who had electroconvulsive therapy I haven't heard from her for a long time and I looked it up on the internet it says you can lose your memory so that's probably why I haven't heard from her she had depression.

ECT causes permanent brain damage and should be banned

Breggin com
click on ECT tab

professionalsagainstect com/interviewspresentations html
watch video

mindfreedom org/kb/mental-health-abuse/electroshock/ect-review-2010-read-bentall.pdf/view?searchterm=ect
John Read and Richard Bentall’s study of ECT safety and efficacy

professionalsagainstect com/resources html
see Harold Sackeim study

epetitions direct gov uk/petitions/16278
UK Government e-petition

electricshocktherapy info/
Australia

Frankly it sounds more like a sledgehammer than a reset button! Something that can destroy random memories isn't a good thing. nominalist mentioned losing arithmetic - but that is only what he knows he lost. That would be apparent because it is a functional loss and he (or teachers) would notice the sudden loss of that ability. There is no telling what other memories it destroys that are not functional simply due to not knowing what you've forgotten! You could forget entire groups of friends and be oblivious to their existence, blissfully unaware that you have lost your memories of them.

It sounds very barbaric to me. One step up from a lobotomy. It is like trying to repair a delicate and complex antique clock by hitting it with a hammer.

Yes it all sounds a bit scary, except it usage is now highly regulated (at least it is in the countries I know of), and, as others have said, is used primarily for severe depression not responding to other treatments.

I've never had clinical depression, but I get close to what it must feel like during particularly bad meltdowns or 'depression attacks' (term used by Tony Attwood), - like I'm wading through tar, suffocating and can't see the surface - and the pain is like nothing I've experienced physically. I can't fathom what it must feel like to go through this for longer than a day, and if I'd already tried everything else, I'd be begging for ECT.

'destroying random memories' it might do, but what good are those memories when you're at the end of your rope?

ECT gives permanent brain damage. Any immediate effect is due to concussion. A temporary euphoria which fades after 4 - 6 weeks and the patient goes back to how they were plus they now have brain damage. People can forget their education and many years of their past life. They can have cognitive deficits and be unable to make new memories. ECT machines have never been tested for safety on humans. Unfortunately they are big business which is why psychiatrists are lobbying the FDA to relegate the machines from class III to class II so they don't have to be tested. The FDA are being pressurised by congress to do one or the other.

I have been offered ECT during a florid mania, and managed to get a lawyer to refuse it.

That being said, I've seen people totally incapacitated by severe depression, where they are not eating, drinking, bathing etc, and suicidal, get ECT in the hospital. It does cause memory loss early on. It's the short term memory that takes the hit.

Now, it's about 4 years down the road since my two friends had ECT, and I did ask about the memory loss. Both are in school and living their lives. One is married. They tell me they have no permanent memory loss this far out from treatment.

So....if the choice is death (suicide), or a very long term psych hospitalization where the shrinks are just throwing medications at the depression, ECT might be an attractive choice. It's a series of 12 treatments (little over a month), you can't drive because of the memory loss, but you gotta weigh and balance your options.

And I know all the other con ECT web sites screaming about permanent brain damage. I'm sure it happens, but ECT is a Hail Mary pass treatment. You've burned through all your options and nothing is working for the depression.

I can't picture it used just for Autism, unless you have treatment resistant depression on top of the Autism.

Personally, I'll never have it done, and my whole family will advocate against it if that time ever happens again.

If they have lost various memories and nothing happens in their subsequent lives to indicate the losses, how would they know they've lost memories anyway? You don't know what you don't know.

My Wife's cousin kept having "suicide attacks" (threatening to jump off houses / bridges etc.), eventually she was an in-patient with consent, then sectioned. She was treated with ECT, she is now OK, she can still drive, but not much else is left. She now just taxis her parents around and says not a word.

She probably is a female Aspie, her mother is the definition of eccentric. She did well academically in school, but was well known for odd social behaviour since she was young. The mental health service as is quite common never gave her any proper assessments and just attempted to treat this apparent severe depression.

If your well enough to be considering the pros and cons of ECT, it's the wrong treatment for you.

Jason.

No, it's not. It's a last resort, but the damage it does is often worth the effect, and is nowhere near the level of what a lobotomy would cause.

ECT for depression is the process of using electrical current to induce a seizure deliberately, and with the patient unconscious; most people have multiple treatments. The damage from ECT is mostly a matter of memory loss--usually initial confusion, followed by recovery of memories up to a few days before the procedure. Some people have lost months worth of memories but this is rare. Nowadays, they often use ECT on just one half of the brain at a time; this seems to be less likely to result in bad side effects.

The reason ECT is still used is that it sometimes works when no medication will touch severe, treatment-resistant depression. The depression is more disabling than the after-effects of the ECT, so it is considered worth a try. Some people would undoubtedly have committed suicide if it were not for treatment by ECT.

It is not something to take lightly, but it is not a lobotomy. It has been shown to be effective in sending depression into remission, and the damage it does is less than the damage that would be caused by having depression.