ECT for 16 year olds !

Annie I don’t often post any more, but I have to say I share all your concerns. I worked in a psychiatric hospital in the 70s, I accompanied patients to have ECT, I held them down (not strapped). I saw things that should never have happened. I saw patients who had lost years of memory from repeated ECT. I vowed then that I would never allow any member of my family to undergo that ‘treatment’ if it can be called that. There is not a psychiatrist in the world who can tell you how it is supposed to work. It was a trial and error treatment invented in the dark ages of psychiatry and should have been left there as far as I’m concerned.

I later worked in mental health, but in the community so no direct experience of ECT. Nothing I saw in the people I worked with changed my views. The thought that this is being given to children is horrific.

I still worry that people's fears are based on experience that is30 yrs old. Is there anyone who has more recent knowledge who can say if it is still risky and potentially dangerous or if the approach has improved? I do not know.

I can’t say PECS but my gut feeling is that sending 70 - 150 volts of electricity (MIND figures) through someone’s brain is bound to be risky. And if I were to be prescribed any medical treatment I would at least expect the person prescribing it to be able to explain to me how it works. And possibly even the research outcomes if it was a risky treatment. Can’t get any of that with ECT.

Anniebach I don't know why you persist in this topic. If you want clear up to date information on ECT then I suggest that you look at the NICE guidelines on it, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, or Mental Welfare Commission (Scotland). If you just want to find others to join you in an 'ooh isn't ECT awful' thread that's another matter. That's why I'm being snippy.

Thank you nightowl

I have posted info on ECT from MIND on this thread .

How can electric shock to the brain in the 70’s can be any different to an electric shock to the brain in 2019 ?

Voltage for one thing. However, you're absolutely certain it's a bad thing so there is no point in telling you any more of those pesky facts. Do you have similar views on ECG?

Annie I also posted the MIND link. It did not come to a definitive conclusion.. but a decent number of patients did say they had benefited from treatment.

While I have grave reservations about ECT for anyone - and certainly I see it as an awful treatment for children, I know of someone (with serious mental health issues) who was hospitalised for months with no sign of recovery, until having ECT, which brought about a massive improvement in health and well being. Just saying.

Good to hear that it does have positive benefits. In all advice it talks about it being a last resort treatment.

PECS i am questioning how it can be a last resort treatment for teenagers .

Some have benefited from the treatment some have been damaged.

Reading the list of symptoms suffers endure , do teenagers reach these stages ? They do not come overnight

There have been a few research trials to look at the placebo effect in ECT, where patients are prepared, anaesthetised, taken to the ECT suite in exactly the same manner as patients having ECT. The quality of these trials varies as do the conclusions. But this is an interesting conclusion from a review of the research

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16856307/

That is interesting nightowl thank you

Thanks nightowl
Sadly annie there are children in primary schools with significant mental illness. So it is possible thst there may be some 16yr olds who have been through other treatments. I cannot imagine any psychiatrists in UK suggesting ECT except as a last resort.

So sad, thank you PECS

Depression can and does present even in younger children, although it is most common in adolescents in the pediatric population. It's quite conceivable that an adolescent could have tried multiple therapies prior to ECT. Unfortunately suicide is not uncommon in adolescents and is most often due to depression.