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Calmblueocean
Senior Contributor

Electric shock treatment

I really would like to talk to someone who knows about this treatment.  I would like to let people consider this scenario  (which really happened) to a fellow patient when we were in a facility together.  A woman who would have been around 25 to 30 years old and was unwell at the time was given papers for the approval of receiving electric shock treatment.  I was sitting next to her out the back where you were allowed to smoke  (back in the day) when she asked me to go over the papers with her because she was having trouble comprehending them. I remember going through some of the side effects   bit scary  chance of heart attack was one of them. I was getting concerned because she was unwell and seemed to be giving the go ahead for this treatment she didn't really understand.  She did not have an advocate.  Why not? How can someone who is unwell be asked to do this.   She had the treatment.  She returned in a wheelchair.  She had wet herself and her head was lolling down. She was very quiet  unresponsive and was definitely not aware what was going on around her. This happened about ten years ago and sometimes makes me wonder about the system. Does anyone know about the protocols for this. Seems disgusting that she didn't have anyone to give her advocacy in a situation like this

1 REPLY 1

Re: Electric shock treatment

Yes   i am replying to my own post.   I had a look at this and it seems that patients can give informed consent so long as they are deemed well enough by the physchiatrist.  They can't be delusional or extremely unwell. I guess the medical profession and i disagree on this. I think that the treatment should have been thoroughly explained to her by a doctor and she should have been totally aware of what to expect. Not sitting next to another patient trying to understand between the two of them what it all means.  Thinking about this makes me think of the huge array of drugs they administer. I will give a list of some they have tried. Largactal. Tegratol. Lithium.  Diasapam. Sodium valporate. Serequel. paxam  respiridal and then there were pills to treat the side effects of these drugs  and now orlistat . I forgot a couple but i am sure you get the picture. I shouldn't complain because a certain combination of these medications actually helped. It was just a bit of a roller coaster getting it right. Maybe i am having a small episode of "the mentally ill against the world" Venting maybe to whoever will listen. Sorry all

 

 

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