ETC - Can it be worth a shot? At what point should one try?

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroconvulsive_therapy

It seems less "primitive" than I thought it was. Almost seems worth a shot, kind of like hitting the side of a TV to get it working right again

15 years no meds work, having strange/bad panic attacks. I have aspergers and also dx'd bi-polar and I am so shy and scared I can't leave my apartment. Then when the panic attack comes and I feel like I'm being dragged into hell I have to eat benzo's and lay down for 45 minutes before I can even stand up without passing out.

Anyone had any good results? Think Medicaid would cover it?

This is more of a technical note but it's ECT, maybe one of the mods could change the title so that people will click on it?

ECT can be highly effective for some people and as a process it's been refined although it remains crude. They think it works by overall reducing brain activity because depression seems to cause over activity in multiple brain areas that seems to produce the symptoms...well it's not clear which comes first and my explanation is highly simplified but it's the general idea.

It's definitely effective, I don't think that's ever really been argued otherwise. I also know on an anecdotal basis it's helped a number of people when nothing else has. What I would say is thoroughly research it, know exactly what you are going into. The side effects are significant and that is where its controversy lies, not in its effectiveness.

I know nothing about Medicaid as I am in the UK.

I had ECT (a total of 8 treatments) in 2006. I had it because I had tried many medications in hospital and none of them seemed to work. ECT works quickly - by the time I had 4 treatments I was feeling better.

I had a lot of memory loss, events for up to a year before the ECT were erased from my memory and I never got those memories back.

I don't know how ECT would help with your panic attacks, it is not really used for that I don't think.