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i got brain damage from electroconvulsive therapy.

Posted , 86 users are following.

sue_cunliffe1
sue_cunliffe1

In 2005 I was given 22 lots of electroconvulsive therapy. It left me with brain damage that means I will never work again. I was lucky because I got support from a neuropsychologist who allowed me to understand and come to terms with my problems. ECT can be used to great effect. However some people like myself end up severely and permanently affected. I want to use this place to link up with those like myself. So that we can support each other.  I don't say ect shouldn't be used. But people thinking of it should understand what can happen. The Information given about ECT side effects doesn't go into details, they talk about memory problems. Actually it affects far more than that. It causes cognitive impairment. 10 years on I need 12 hours of home help a week to help me care for my 3 kids. I tire very easily and some days I am able and feel intelligent. Other days if I have pushed myself and not been able to have a midday nap I struggle to do the most basic of tasks. Some days I'm not well enough to drive at all. Other days I will drive short distances. I was a doctor and well never work again. 

Please let me know if you have had similar problems. Or if your thinking about ECT please make sure that you understand what could happen to you. It could mean permanent I'll health on top of your existing problems.I am no longer depressed. It wasn't stopped by the ECT but by psychological input to support me out of my coercively abusive marriage.

16 likes, 269 replies

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  • charity26223
    charity26223 sue_cunliffe1

    Posted

    suzie sue you are certainly not alone in having been damaged by ECT. I am impressed by the fact that you got support from a neuropsychologist - was it difficult to obtain? The fact that psychiatrists insist on describing ECT as a safe treatment must discourage other health professionals from accepting that it can be damaging. Everyone knows that ECT affects memory but this is generally trivialised by psychiatrists. And they also say it doesn't cause brain damage without specifying that they are talking about a very gross kind of damage.
    • sue_cunliffe1
      sue_cunliffe1 charity26223

      Posted

      Hi. If you are in the UK then ask your gp to refer you. Ect damages your working memory function and causes cognitive impairment. Headways is a UK charity working for Brian damaged patients they could advise on you local neuropsychologist. Hope that helps
  • charity26223
    charity26223 sue_cunliffe1

    Posted

    When I asked if it was difficult to obtain help I wasn't thinking about myself (I had ECT forty years ago so any cognitive impairment I might have now would be put down to old age!). I was wondering more how you had overcome the resistance of medical professionals to the idea that ECT can cause significant damage. Or perhaps it was just luck. Because there are many people who have experienced the similar damage but have not been able to obtain help. To me your experience does seem to offer some hope (not to myself but to other people) and also perhaps in a more general sense hope that there might be a more honest discussion about ECT for people who might have it in the future. Does Headway mention ECT as a possible cause of brain damage in any of their literature? That would be a step forward.

    Before you had ECT, were you aware that it was a controversial treatment?

  • beth_41849
    beth_41849 sue_cunliffe1

    Posted

    I too have brain damage from ect.  I have had trememndous success with Strattera.  It is a non-stimulant medication to treat adhd and it helped me to go from working a minimum wage job to now I sell fiancial products for a major bank.  You should most definitely speak to your

    Dr.  about trying it.  I have had absolutely no side-effects from it.

    • julie9596
      julie9596 beth_41849

      Posted

      Hi

      Are you in the US?  I had at least 20 Ect sessions from 10/15 to 10/16.  I finally stopped. Everytime I expressed my concern for hope I was feeling, my doctors remedy was more Ect.  I am so upset with him. To this day he refuses to sit down, in an office visit, and talk to me. He keeps telling me he can't because of insurance.  I have told him I will pay but he needs to hear and see me. Anyway, now my other doctors are trying to help me and figure out what's going on.  My Ect doctor won't even return my doctors calls.  Anyway, sympathize with what u are going through.  I am going to check into this drug. I hope your health steadily improves. ??

    • sue_cunliffe1
      sue_cunliffe1 beth_41849

      Posted

      Hi. Sorry I didn't reply many years ago. Can I ask which country you're in?

  • nick34171
    nick34171 sue_cunliffe1

    Edited

    Let me get this right, you had ECT and you are a Dr, you didnt take into account pathways, shelters, help from your own professional community to get out of an abusive marriage, or use therapy routes, instead you opted for ECT. This amazes me, i get told to bugger off regarding a scan which would have cemented a diagnosis and got me onto the next step of my illness, which is coping and learning to live with it, still here i am in limbo and people like you get 'home help'. Did you pay private for your round of ECT or did you get it on the NHS? Actually, you know what im thankful for your post, seriously. i'm going to show it to my dr.
    • sue_cunliffe1
      sue_cunliffe1 nick34171

      Edited

      10 years ago there was not much on the internet and being a good doctor myself I trusted my doctor to be open and knowledgeable and honest....but she wasn't.

      I tried to lodge a complaint but failed. ..I am thinking of repeating this s in the last couple of years there is a more open approach to complaints. I was fortunate in having partially insured my income...

      My ect was on the nhs and they did not follow the NICE GUIDELINES.

      if you have had ect and suffered cognitive problems. .. Memory, tiredness, not able to multitask then to get help you don't need a scan. You must ask to be referred to a neuroPSYCHOLOGIST as opposed to a psychiatrist. They will do neuropsychology testing. When mine was done I want automatically sent to see the psychologist after....I had to request to see them. ...because my great results weren't horrendous.....but in saw him and he immediately understood that my level of functioning fluctuates depending on my tiredness. After a few visits to him he was able to diagnose that my problems were due to ECT and were not due to depression or medication, which is what my psychitrist had been telling me for 2 years. He understood what it felt like to have effectively a new brain in my head. .....he supported me and made it real. ...reassuring me that I was not mad... Which my psychiatrist was telling me I was. He taught me to understand my brain damage and how to live a meaningful life. It is not always easy but I am determined to make the most of what I have and that only begins when you find the support like I got. I hope that helps.

      I learnt coping strategies

    • nick34171
      nick34171 sue_cunliffe1

      Posted

      I done my reserach, that scan was my last step it getting a diagnosis following steps a to b, some people like the neverending cycle of going through the wringer, im not one for that. i guess being simplistic average person who goes out their way to help themselves means bugger all to some people. Like when people type in capitals on here suggesting that other posters are stupid, you could have wrote that all in capitals if you had wanted too, it means nothing to me. I understood everything you had wrote. Doesn't mean i agreed with it. I am glad that you find your life easier and i do truly mean that, i don't have and have never had ect related problems, i didn't put that up there. This was a depression post first and foremost yes, yes, you had depression from a relationship and thought ECT was the answer. I have depression because im fed up with being ill and being persecuted for it. And yes i know depression in itself is an illness, im not going to get into that. And ok the internet was less used ten years ago but there were books you know. As said i hope your complaint goes through you should indeed push it, and i am glad your life is alot better, Nick.
    • beth_41849
      beth_41849 sue_cunliffe1

      Posted

      Just fyi, it has been 14 years since I had ECT and my brain does get a little bit better each year.  I also had success with Lamictal.  It really helped me focus.  I still strugle though.  I am not as smart as I used to be but I too have learned  coping skills that helped.  It's nice to know that they are filling people's heads with how safe ECT is when it is so horrible destructive.  Best of luck!!
  • robin58364
    robin58364 sue_cunliffe1

    Posted

    Hi

    I was given a month's ECT at a clinic in Newcastle-upon-Tyne when I was nearly 7, as my parents believed I was suffering from severe mental problems. I was sent to the clinic in an ambulance with blacked out windows, and was subjected to 28 days of ECT(usually about 3000 volts for at least 30 minutes.

    I saw no other patients in all the time I was there, only 1 nurse and 1 doctor, and was told if i told anyone what was happening to me, they would make me disappear.

    As a result of this treatment I now suffer from Aspergers, have no male hormones and no penis because they were literally burnt out of me by the extremely high ECT voltage used.

    As a consequence I cannot have any relationships with females, have no friends, will not go out of my house at all.

    In other words because of what happened over 50 years ago I'm a prisoner in my own home.

    • jimbourg8
      jimbourg8 robin58364

      Posted

      What you just said it technically impossible ! You could not have had 3000 volts into your head for 30 minutes and still be alive. But what you just said may be an indication that in fact you did suffer brain damage ! 
    • julie9596
      julie9596 sue_cunliffe1

      Posted

      Are you or did you organize anything for people who have been damaged by ECT?  I would be very interested in participating 
    • michael77727
      michael77727 jimbourg8

      Posted

      Low amps, the actual shock was probably less than 30 mins, but possibly the whole session was.  There is also the fact that it was 50 years ago at the age of 7.  My memory of my ECT is still really choppy and it was only 10 or 15 years ago (I don't have my records, and I can't really put a year to it.  I kind of get a headache when I try).  But, yeah, it's not the volts that kill you, it's the amps.  It is possible, even as stated.

    • sue_cunliffe1
      sue_cunliffe1 julie9596

      Posted

      Hi sorry I didn't get back to you.

      Are you in the UK?

      Are you in the Facebook ECT pages.

      I'm trying to organise things now.

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