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How Long The General Physical Risks Of ECT Last?

Posted on Thu, 29 Dec 2016

Question: I've had eleven ECT treatments. Things were fine until the eleventh treatment. When I woke up I had a splitting headache and I was dizzy. The headache lasted a week before I was given nortriptyline. This took care of that problem. Then I started getting other symptoms such as shaking all over, sometimes I get very restless, constantly tensing my muscles and I can't relax them no matter how hard I try. I'm dizzy, I have pressure in/behind my eyes, my vision is distorted and often blurry, I am confused and my memory is bad. Sometimes my muscles are weak. This has been going on for four weeks. The symptoms go away when I lay down. I have had a CT Scan, MRI, and lumbar puncture to check for a CSF Leak but all the tests were normal.Is all of this being caused by the ECT treatment? I read that the side effects only lasted a few days at the most. I have had these symptoms for over 4 weeks.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Erion Spaho (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Physical symptoms probably related to spine condition.

Detailed Answer:
Hello and thanks for using HCM.

I have read your question and understand your concerns.

It is true that physical adverse effects of ETC don't last that long.

Memory issues in the other hand, may last for months.

However, is possible that ETC may worsen previous conditions such spinal degerative disease, that's why I think that your physical symptoms related mainly to muscles are related to current spinal column and cord condition.

Planned spine surgery to correct these spinal issues should improve your symptoms too.

Treatment with muscles relaxers, NSAID drugs, also is necessary.

Hope you found the answer helpful.

Let me know if I can assist you further.

Take care.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T