Ect short term memory loss

Does ECT cause significant and permanent memory loss? How long does memory loss last after ECT? What are the negative side effects of ECT? Will my memory return after ECT?

Many patients had very conflicted feelings about ECT , lead researcher.

They talked reassuringly about how ECT has been improve and what a safe procedure it has become. But being whitewashed by the electricity and losing the details and major plots of many books depresses me. The memory loss is as disheartening as the depression I experienced pre-ECT.

The total loss of months and years of my life was not worth the extreme efforts to fight my mental illness. Significant improvement in total and backward digit span (measures of short-term memory ) at 6-month follow-up was significant initially but not after correction for improvement of depression. The entire football season when the Saints won was gone- as was the entire season of Dancing with the Stars where Donny Osmond won!

These are complete wipe outs. This tells me that we store memories in packets and not by time alone.

My memory loss was often like chunks of memory -if that makes sense. I lost a few weeks of memory completely. Meaning if you get ECT on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, your memory of the events in the afternoon’s of Monday, Wednesday and Friday gets somewhat fuzzy.

But your memory about events on Tuesday, Thursday and the weekend is relatively intact. Diagnosing memory loss Your doctor will perform a physical exam and ask you questions to help them. However, my brain function feels so slow that it takes a very long time to learn how to play a new board game. Electroconvulsive therapy ( ECT ) is effective for both the manic and depressed phases of bipolar disorder (BD) and is included as an option for refractory BD in the algorithms of several published guidelines.

A major concern regarding ECT as a treatment option is generally not whether it is effective but whether it is associated with long-term cognitive changes, particularly in various memory systems. Some who consider ECT worry about memory loss. Members of our local Dallas ECT support group, ConnECT, report some short - term memory issues around the time that ECT was administere but no.

Memory loss is one of the greatest concerns of people who receive ECT. Two different kinds of memory loss may occur during the course of ECT treatments. The first is the loss of short - term memory during the period of time that you are having ECT treatments. Some examples of short - term memory loss include forgetting what you had for lunch or not remembering talking to someone earlier in the day.

Short - term memory loss is the major side effect from electroconvulsive therapy ( ECT ) for schizophrenia. This usually goes away within a few weeks after treatment ends. How your memory fares after ECT depends on whether you are in the index phase of ECT or the maintenance phase of ECT.

Index phase of ECT means that you are undergoing acute, aggressive ECT treatment for your depression. From what I understand the ECT works by inducing seizures and it’s like a reboot of the brain. The short term memory loss is one of the purpose of this treatment.

I had convulsive status epilepticus caused by my drug addiction. That’s like a never ending chain of seizures and when the doctors stabilized me,. Analyzing years of data, including private communications with one of the leading researchers of our time on memory loss from ECT (Janis), Sterling strongly concludes that ECT does, in fact, cause organic brain damage, similar to that seen from the of trauma or toxicity in the brain. Yes, it’s a serious choice and one that comes with many side effects.

Overall, I had bilateral ECT treatments. When it didn’t work I was pretty devastated. It works for so many people. If I thought it would work now, I would do it again… today. And sometimes the stories are funny!

Many people experience memory loss after having ECT. Some people find this only lasts for a short time and their memories gradually return as they recover from ECT. But some people experience more long-lasting or permanent memory loss , including losing personal memories or forgetting information they need to continue in their career or make. The cause for the significant gap between research and anecdotal evidence regarding the extent of some memory loss after electroconvulsive therapy ( ECT ) has never been adequately explained. This would lead to a lack of blood in the brain, the opposite of what is reported.

Thus, the later modifications of ECT can relieve the threat of cerebral anoxia, but not the threat of high pressure, bleeding, loss of blood-brain barrier, or edema 3. The electrical shock causes damage to the blood-brain barrier.