The_Q wrote:
Dad would be coming up to his mid 50's now, He received ECT when he was a kid (I don't know how old exactly). You were pretty lucky to have suffered temporary memory loss. It seems my Dad's was more permanent. To this day he has been told of events from around the time of his treatment that he doesn't recall. As with many Aspie's, his long term memory is usually quite exceptional.
Well, we are in the same generation. I will be 52 next month and received the ECTs at 11.
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What I don't understand is the reason why he received ECT. If I remember properly, he received as a result of his depression. The theory was that a traumatic event in his life was the reason for it (hence - the memory loss). The treatment has no real positive effect.
Prior to 1968, aspies, as children, were usually diagnosed with
schizophrenic reaction, childhood type. (That was my diagnosis under the DSM-I, including when I received ECTs in 1967.) Beginning in 1968 (DSM-II), they changed the name to
schizophrenia, childhood type. However, it was nothing more than a name change. The category included
autism.
I don't think it helped me either. It would be, like today, giving ECTs to a child with Asperger's and OCD. They wouldn't do it. I began to become high functioning in my late teens, but, as far as I know, no one would attribute that to the ECTs.
Yes, they did give ECTs to people with depression
and with schizophrenia. The problem was that schizophrenia was defined so broadly that it included what we today call Asperger's.
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On the positive side, I've been lead to believe that shock treatment methods have improved greatly recently and aren't as 'barbaric'. I still don't trust it though.
I have no memory of them. After I would lay down on the table, they put me to sleep before the ECTs.
22 Jan 2008, 10:32 am
