Question:
I have been fighting with depression for about a year now. I have used
three different meds that had side effects I could not deal with.
I am now fighting fatigue and my mind seem to always be in a fog.
Last month on a week end I was working on the dishwasher and gave myself
a good hard shock. The next week at work I could think clearly and I
wrote more lines of code in that week than all last year (almost). I
hadn't felt that good for about 10 years (I am now 48). Is my fatigue
and fog really depression or restless leg syndrome(which I have.)? If I
weren't so chicken I would grab hold of the two wires from a plug every
week and charge up my batteries.
Answer:
Doesn't work that way Wayne. ECT is used to cause convulsions, an electric storm within the brain!
Vagus nerve stimulation dose not cause convulsions. What relationship
is there between ECT and Vagus nerve stimulation as far as what they
actually doing to the brain? Wayne, Vagus Nerve Stimulation is totally unrelated to ECT. They
are entirely different procedures which have little to nothing
in common with each other. Furthermore, VNS is a highly
experimental procedure for severe refractory depression and it
is highly debatable whether it works very well. Remember all the
hype about rTMS for treatment resistant depression? Well, now
they are starting to find out it is not a very robust treatment
for refractory depression compared to ECT. rTMS doesnt even work
good for plain old clinical depression...much less for
refractory "medication resistant" depression. And I should know
as I participated in the clinical trials last year. I highly
suspect VNS will be found to fall into the same boat as rTMS.
Wait a few years and watch...bet my predictions will be right. My advice would be to bypass these esoteric experimental
procedures unless you happen to be lucky enough to live in the
same town that these procedures are being done. For example, I
would say forget about rTMS unless you happen to live in one of
the cities like Charleston, SC or Chicago...where the trials
are. Cause it probably aint gonna help you much anyway...no need
to waste money and time traveling for it.
I would recommend an aggressive trial of ECT and/or an MAOI like
high dosage Parnate if you have severe refractory depression.
High dosage Effexor XR is not bad either.
Forget this experimental stuff...hype. There are no real, true
blue clinical trials in treatment resistant depression anywhere.
They say there are but there really are none. Most of what is
out there in terms of trials for refractory depression are done
to satisfy the big egos of a handful of neuropsychiatrists who
have special interests in these areas. Or to satisfy the big
pharmaceutical companies who want to find more ways to sell
their drugs. For example, I just recently turned down the chance
to be in a trial for treatment resistant depression sponsored by
Eli Lilly. The gist of the whole trial basically was they wanted
to see if they could augment SSRIs like Prozac with low dose
Zyprexa to see if the Zyprexa would "activate" the Prozac. Keep
in mind both Prozac and Zyprexa are made by Eli Lilly. I guess
Eli Lilly is thinking of trying to get Zyprexa formally FDA
approved for use in treatment resistant depression. That is just
conjecture...an educated guess. But it would be just one more
use they could sell their drugs for and thus they would make
more money.
Nowhere, anywhere are there any credible scientists trying to
figure out what is the root cause of medication resistant
depression. They are not throwing any real money at it anywhere.
All the money is going into stuff like AIDS research, cancer and
cardiovascular research...stuff like that. There is more
interest in finding a cure for Parkinsons disease than there is
for severe clinical depression and manic depression. Even though
all three are lethal neurological disorders.
Nowhere are they trying to develop new, revolutionary
medications for treatment resistant depressives. They should be
but they are not. Personally, Id like to see them develop
medications designed specifically for the treatment resistant
depressive. But they wont cause nobody really cares. Nobody
cares about the treatment resistant depressive. The only real
procedure they have for treatment resistance that works is good
old fashioned ECT...probably bilateral and it has more side
effects but it works.
Im going to shave my head before I even arrive for ECT...hehehe Feel the burn...turn the juice up!!! funny you should mention that electric shock thing.. I recall many years ago getting a mild electric shock from a coffee pot- and did feel noticeably better ...
so now as I battle a ceaseless depression that is tolerable at best I am having to seriously look at ECT (?) as the only thing that may work.
now, what was my point...?
I am currently taking Lamictal which is an anti-seizure medications.. as it seems that my crying jags are like little epileptic fits.. as well the doctor seems to think the Lamictal will help stabilize my mood- well it does that allright! Now I am in a shitty horrible mood all damn day instead of for a couple of hours.
I am thinking I must dump this Lamictal as it is making me feel worse, not better.
Any comments on Lamictal ?
