Have you tried Remeron? It is often used to treat severe depression when other drugs have failed.

This may not be particularly helpful, but my great aunt had it in the 60s for depression and it truly helped her. She was a wreck for years after losing her husband in WWII and getting involved in a second, abusive marriage. The ECT helped her regain some normalcy and therefore some strength to leave a bad situation. And she was good for decades. I have no clue how the treatment has evolved over the past 50 years, but this is my family experience with it. I would research it thoroughly, but it is definitely a viable option. Good luck.

Requiem for a dream

ECT was a life-saver for my MIL. She was so severely depressed she was catatonic and her speech was very disorganized. She was bipolar and had ups and downs for years along with substance abuse, but she was a wonderful woman.

After only a few ECT sessions, she was back. I'll never forget how her sons described her eyes -- they kept saying that they could tell she was back because they could see her in her eyes again.

She did have some memory loss (primarily lost memories about the past, not skills-based memories). I recognize how distressing it must be to look at a family photo and not remember the incident, but, frankly, the trade-off of lost memories for lifting the crippling depression was well-worthwhile.

Basically, in terms of skills-based memory loss, everything she was able to do before the depression, she was able to do after ECT.

I never would have believed how effective ECT could be if I hadn't seen the difference with my own eyes.

I worked in a clinic that provided ECT so while I haven't experienced it myself I have seen many people get it. My uncle had ECT for years.

It works really well for some people in alleviating the depression. They respond to the initial set of treatments and the maintenance treatments keep the depression away. Other people I have seen have taken longer to respond and some haven't responded at all.

As for side effects. Almost everyone has some memory loss/fuzziness/sleepiness right after but I've also seen people basically be depression free the day of treatment - although it might not stay that effective in the longer term. I have seen a few people with longer term memory issues. Some have discontinued ECT and others decided that treated depression with memory loss was a better alternative than untreated depression and a good memory.

Definitely consider it, hopefully more people can give you their first hand experience.

Anyone ever tried electroshock therapy for depression? Were you treated locally and were the side effects manageable?