ECT for FM!

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- " Oops, lost another one. Maybe we had the power set too high...NEXT.. "

-->that's one way to get rid of us.

 

 

Entrez PubMed

 

: Pain. 2006 Feb 20

 

Electroconvulsive therapy improves severe pain associated with fibromyalgia.

 

Usui C, Doi N, Nishioka M, Komatsu H, Yamamoto R, Ohkubo T, Ishizuka T,

Shibata N, Hatta K, Miyazaki H, Nishioka K, Arai H.

 

Department of Psychiatry, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo,

Japan.

 

The pathophysiology of fibromyalgia remains unknown. Several reports

have recently suggested the novel concept that fibromyalgia is due to

the central nervous system becoming hyper-responsive to a peripheral

stimulus. The effect of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as pain

remedication in cases of fibromyalgia without major depressive disorder

was studied in a prospective trial lasting three months. All of the

patients taking part in the study fulfilled the American College of

Rheumatology diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia. Technetium-99m ethyl

cysteinate dimer single photon emission computed tomography was used to

assess regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) before and after a course of

ECT. Pain assessment in the patients was undertaken by use of the visual

analog scale (VAS) and by evaluation of tender points (TPs). Beck's

depression inventory (BDI) was further used to assess depressive mood

change in the patients. Our study clearly demonstrated that pain was

significantly less severe after ECT, as indicated by the VAS scale for

pain and the evaluation of TPs. A further notable observation was that

thalamic blood flow was also improved. We conclude that a course of ECT

produced notable improvements in both intractable severe pain associated

with fibromyalgia and also in terms of thalamic blood flow.

 

PMID: 16495009

 

 

(Mod. Note: ECT (Shock Treatments) have been around for many, many years. This

barbaric practice of burning out brain cells with electricity , and calling it

therapy, has been touted at one time or another for a wide variety of different

" mental diseases " including alcoholism. The so called " therapy " , eventually gets

disproven, but within a short time, along comes a " new " use for it and it is

revived all over again. To treat with ECT, an analogy might be, if when your

computer malfunctions, you would take a heavy object and hit it or apply a high

electrical charge to damage part of it in hope that the damage would cause it to

reset somehow and fix the " problem " .)