Finding optimism is a great blog. A lot of information about depression. I cannot beat that blog. The recent post is 94 resources on treating depression. An excellent collection of links. Also informative links about ECT with one of them I hadn't seen before. Another I did find a while ago
Showing posts with label ect. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ect. Show all posts
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Resources on treating depression from finding optimism
Monday, June 25, 2007
Shock Documentary The eye opening story about one of the most controversial medical treatments in history
At this site from the publisher of the film you can view a trailer and buy the DVD. Through candid and intimate interviews with patients, doctors, and other experts, the film explores the myths, mysteries, and realities surrounding electroconvulsive therapy, a medical procedure used, most effectively, in treating severe clinical depression. ECT works by inducing seizures in a patient through electrical impulses to the brain. One of the interviewed is Kitty Dukakis, wife of the three-term Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis.
I bought the DVD, will review it when I've seen it.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Bipolar disorder and electroshock (ECT)
ECT for bipolar disorder is underused to my opinion. This article on HealthyPlace.com is an excellent description of the use of ECT with bipolar disorder
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Sackeims letter to the editor about memory loss due to electroshock
Sure, ranomized controlled trials are better than naturalistic trials, but what we need is better memory tests, study other types of memory (everyday memory and semantic memory), longer follow-up and basic research to the question why some of the patients treated with ECT get memory deficits.
In his letter to the editor Prof Sackeim defends his findings of a naturalistic 7 centre trial to the side effects of ECT. He also used a biographical memory test. These tests are at the least not the best tests to examen retrograde amnesia. We should develop more specific and sensitive test for retrograde amnesia. Last month I made a post about better memory tests especially for retrograde anmesia. W're doing a trial with a new test with ECT for retrograde amnesia. Patients are still incuded in this trial.
Moreover as stated in his letter the impact on every day living of retrograde amnesia is still to be researched. Besides everyday memory, semantic memory is of interest.
Also most research on side effects of ECT have a short follow-up. Randomized controlled trials control for such things as late onset depression and the side effects but with longer follow-up w're able to look at the patients in which the depression is the first symptom of cognitive decline.
We now know a lot about dosage, electrode placement and cognitive side effects of ECT, but what we don't know yet is how do these side effects appear, where do they originate. How can we adapt our techniques and devices to lessen cognitive side effects. More important, which individual factors of the patient makes him more or less prone to these cognitive side effects.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Monday, June 4, 2007
Ugo Cerletti
Dr Shock is attending a symposium in Bolzano, Italy about ECT. On one of his days off he was hiking the mountains of the Dolomites in north eastern Italy were he met a 77 years old men Dr Ugo Bebetti. During a pranzo (lunch) in a lovely hotel in Bulla where they met, both on there way to the Alpe di Siusi he told Dr Shock about Dr Ugo Cerletti. The old man met Dr Cerletti during his resedency at the University of Rome.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
VNS for Depression “New”? No, But Don’t Tell Wired - World of Psychology
VNS for Depression “New”? No, But Don’t Tell Wired - World of Psychology
Nuanced comment in this blog about Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). As it states the FDA has approved this treatment 2 years ago. It is mostly used with pharamcotherapy- and ECT resistant depressed patients.
Since recently the treatment is not covered as a treatment for Medicare recipients since may this year. The effectiveness of this treatment is not clear, we need some good research but the trouble is how can you design a trial with a control or even a placebo condition?
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Magnetic brain stimulator touted as treatment for depression - Engadget
Magnetic brain stimulator touted as treatment for depression - Engadget
As it said in the article this device is introduced during the American Psychiatric Association meeting in San Diego this year. It employs transcranial magnetic stimulation.The mistake in this article is the notion that previously you had to have anesthesia for it, they probably mean with ECT. There is no hard evidence that transcranial magnetic stimulation is actually working as a treatment for depression.
See also:about depression.com
Saturday, May 19, 2007
About To Have ECT? Fine, but Don't Watch It in the Movies: The Sorry Portrayal of ECT in Film
About To Have ECT? Fine, but Don't Watch It in the Movies: The Sorry Portrayal of ECT in Film
An excellent overview of ECT in movies. This article is a summary of an article by G. Walter an Australian psychiatriust. This summary is made by Prof. Max Fink from the U.S.A.
This summary discusses all movies since the beginning of the 20th century. Movies from Hollywood as well as European and Australian movies. It shortly describes the place of ECT in the movie. In this study by Walter et al. (2002) one third of medical students decreased their support for the treatment after being shown scenes from movies.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
ECT online, an english website about electroshock
ECT online, a very nice website. It's author has the view that ECT does have a place in modern medicine. Critical standpoints are also mentioned.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Electroconvulsive therapy
This is a video on which a patients tells about her complaints during her depressive episode. It also shows some details on an ECT session.
One of the psyciatrists on this video is Prf. Dr. Max Fink, an authority on ECT.
He wrote many books. He visits european countries to help them establish good ECT services.
Monday, May 7, 2007
ECT and beta blockers
In this recently published review we summarized the results of the placebo-controlled randomized clinical trials with beta-blocking adrenergic agents during electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and review the effect on seizure duration and cardiovascular variables.
Esmolol can have a significant effect on seizure duration during ECT, it shortens seizure duration, and this effect is probably dose dependent.
Since the relation between seizure duration and efficacy of ECT is dependent on electrode placement it seems advisable to use bilateral electrode placement with patients with cardiovascular risk factors and use of esmolol during every session before seizure induction. One should take into account the possible negative effect of esmolol on seizure duration in these cases and adhere to the guidelines for ECT that advise at least 10 treatment sessions with bilateral ECT before one can conclude that ECT is not efficacious.
In the absence of cardiovascular risk factors but with prolonging hypertension or tachycardia during ECT sessions, esmolol also is again preferred. Labetalol is an alternative although, especially in high dose, the longer half-life can be considered as a disadvantage. Experiences with landiolol are limited but the short half-life, greater degree of cardioselectivity and more potency makes it a promising alternative.
Please read the article here: articles on ectweb wiki
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Antidepressants stimulate new nerve cells in adult monkeys, may have implications for humans
In rodents ECT stimulates nerve growth. The suggestion is that this growth of new nerve cells is necessary for recovery from depression. These brain changes were not a response to tissue damage due to the electroconvulsive therapy.
Antidepressants stimulate new nerve cells in adult monkeys, may have implications for humans
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Technology Review: Brain Electrodes Help Treat Depression
Technology Review: Brain Electrodes Help Treat Depression
Electrically stimulating specific parts of the brain using an implanted electrode can help severely depressed patients, according to two studies published this month. The findings are the latest evidence suggesting that "deep brain stimulation," a surgical therapy already widely used to treat Parkinson's disease, could be an alternative treatment for people with severe depression.
Still, experts urge caution in interpreting the results. For one thing, says Karl Deisseroth, a psychiatrist at Stanford who studies experimental treatments for depression, "no placebo-controlled trials have been done" to confirm how well the therapy works on a larger population.Doctors involved in the studies caution that larger clinical trials are needed to determine how effective and long-lasting the therapy is.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wikipedia DVD to Become Available Soon | Gear Live
Wikipedia has a lot of information about ECT. Also in the Dutch version thanks to one of the members of the WEN. Soon there will be a version on DVD. The new DVD will concentrate on about 2,000 articles, with emphasis on mostly unchangeable topics such as geography and literature.
The most valuable information to my opinion is the new initiative: Citizendium.Wiki with stricter editing rules and obligatory disclosure of editor's real names, mostly professionals.
It also has information about ECT
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Belling the cat: ECT practice standards
In his commentary in the Journal of ECT Prof. Max Fink pleads for a ECT Accreditation Service (ECTAS) as in the United Kingdom. In the eighties and nineties of the previous century national surveys of actual practice of ECT in the U.K. revealed deficiencies in the practice of ECT. One third of the clinics did not meet the guideline standard, 41% still used outdated equipment. First in Scotland psychiatrists undertook a 3 year cycle of audits to systematically answer questions about patient demographics and outcome. Each ECT clinic was visited twice. In 2003 this initiative was followed in the U.K. Each ECT site was evaluated. Each site evaluation begins with team members completing a 284-item questionnaire assessing facilities, staff and training, consent, anesthesia, treatment and recovery procedures, and precautions and adherence to protocols. A visit by an assessment team (a clinician, a nurse , and an anaesthetist) to observe actual practice follows. Resurveys of evaluated sites are scheduled in a 3 year cycle. An update of ECTAS standards was put on the website in December 2006. An improvement of the quality of ECT in the UK developed. Is this also possible in the US he asks himself, or in The Netherlands I ask myself?
Monday, April 16, 2007
ECT online, an English website about electroshock or ECT
This website aims to represent the science, the sociology and the emotion of electroconvulsive therapy fairly and in a way that can be easily understood
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