How long do effects of ECT last?
There is considerable variability in the trajectories, but most commonly there is progressive symptomatic improvement within the first week and complete remission within 3 to 4 weeks.
How many ECT treatments can a person have?
People undergoing ECT need multiple treatments. The number needed to successfully treat severe depression can range from 4 to 20, but most people need a total of 6 to 12 treatments.
Can ECT make you worse?
ECT may have a role in people who have comorbid depression and anxiety. The concern of some psychiatrists is that while ECT may help with depressive symptoms, it could worsen anxiety symptoms, including obsessional thoughts or panic attacks.
What are the negative side effects of ECT?
The most common side effects of ECT on the day of treatment include nausea, headache, fatigue, confusion, and slight memory loss, which may last minutes to hours.
Can ECT damage your brain?
These conditions are not approached during ECT. Other findings indicate that the passage of electricity, thermal effects, and the transient disruption of the blood-brain barrier during ECS do not result in structural brain damage. Conclusions: There is no credible evidence that ECT causes structural brain damage.
Does ECT change your personality?
ECT does not change a person’s personality, nor is it designed to treat those with just primary “personality disorders.” ECT can cause transient short-term memory — or new learning — impairment during a course of ECT, which fully reverses usually within one to four weeks after an acute course is stopped.
How does ECT make you feel?
On the days of an ECT treatment, some people experience nausea, headache, jaw pain or muscle ache. These generally can be treated with medications. Medical complications. As with any type of medical procedure, especially one that involves anesthesia, there are risks of medical complications.
Is ECT good for anxiety?
Electroconvulsive therapy is effective in the acute treatment of major depressive disorder patients associated with anxiety symptoms. Anxiety symptoms improved less than depression symptoms during acute electroconvulsive therapy.
Can ECT cause suicidal thoughts?
Compared with controls, patients receiving ECT had more past suicide attempts and hospitalizations and were at elevated risk for suicide. During the year after ECT, the two groups did not differ in death by suicide.
Which is better ECT or TMS?
We found that ECT (P<0.0001) was more effective than TMS (P<0.012) (not statistically significant in group effect) in TRD patients. However, ECT patients reported a higher percentage of side effects (P<0.01) and the TMS treatment scored better in terms of patient preference.
What does ECT do for depression?
How Electroconvulsive Therapy Works. With ECT, an electrical stimulation is delivered to the brain and causes a seizure. For reasons that doctors don’t completely understand, this seizure helps relieve the symptoms of depression. ECT does not cause any structural damage to the brain.
What happens when ECT doesn’t work?
If electroconvulsive therapy doesn’t work, the next step could be deep brain stimulation (DBS) — a depression treatment that is currently considered experimental.
Is TMS like shock therapy?
Repetitive TMS is a noninvasive form of brain stimulation used for depression. Unlike vagus nerve stimulation or deep brain stimulation, rTMS does not require surgery or implantation of electrodes. And, unlike electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), rTMS doesn’t cause seizures or require sedation with anesthesia.
Is TMS a hoax?
TMS is not safe and has many adverse side effects. Across many research and clinical studies on TMS, there has been no evidence of TMS being an unsafe form of therapy. TMS Treatment is well tolerated by most patients and has not shown evidence of severe or adverse effects in patients. Myth #6.
Does TMS really work for depression?
Does TMS work? Approximately 50% to 60% of people with depression who have tried and failed to receive benefit from medications experience a clinically meaningful response with TMS. About one-third of these individuals experience a full remission, meaning that their symptoms go away completely.