All about ECT as a caregiver, or as I call it — Easy-T

Full disclosure, my younger brother has suffered from a cocktail of mental ailments, and so this year he was prescribed sessions of ElectroConvulsive Therapy. This blog isn’t medical information in any shape or form, I am far from qualified. If you’re looking for that — I recommend heading here: Brief Pulse Therapy (BPT/ECT)

But what I will talk elaborately about the experience I and my family had as my brother underwent the treatment, while maintaining our own routine.

What to expect as a caregiver: Depending on the nature and severity of the ailment, your healthcare professional will prescribe a certain number of ECT sessions. We went to a very well know specialist facility — Parth Hospital in Ahmedabad wherein after the first consultation it was decided that my brother needed to have 8 ECT sessions.

What that essentially means is, one session every alternate day at a fixed time in the morning. And each session from start to end takes about 1.5 to 2 hours.

Caregiving Before ECT

Our case was fairly unique as the patient was a) Fully aware of the concept b) Not stigmatised and c) Wanted to get this

We didn’t just get lucky ^ here. We were introduced to the concept in July 2023 and took a month and a few days to decide fully. While in this period, I cannot recommend not talking about this with your relatives enough. It’s a decision YOU as a caregiver need to take, and please base it on information, logic and most importantly data. Let’s save our emotions for other significant events, such as the new Koffee with Karan episode. Or the OpenAI CEO succession drama unfolding in real time on Twitter.

Luckily for us, we got all the info from the website linked above, and not hearing “noise” from around helped us in making a decision based on objectives rather than perceptions.

Caregiving During ECT

Here I won’t go into the details of what happens to the patient, please again read the website again. Yes, again.

I stepped into the hospital for an initial consultation and within minutes the next course of treatment was established. We got the opportunity to have our questions answered, which was reassuring. Know that the process in itself comprises of three key stages: Prep and anaesthesia, the procedure, waking up + recovery. All in all, this is expected to take not longer than 1.5 hours. So I strongly recommend all caregivers to plan accordingly, and not leave out the entire day to just sit and worry outside. If you really need to worry, please worry about the dropping standards of content in Koffee with Karan.

After the first ECT session, it is absolutely normal and expected that the patient will not remember…. much about the past few days. If you ask me, GOOD RIDDANCE. But as a caregiver, I chose to tell my brother exactly what happened to him and why we went with this treatment, and honestly that put him much more at ease.

Apart from temporary memory loss (we could be talking about days/months), there is no other impact on any aspect of life for the patient. The memory loss is expected to last throughout the treatment and you as a caregiver are expected to be more patient than the patient if you need to repeat some key information.

For my brother, he ordered some stuff from Amazon before the ECT and upon getting the delivery, everything felt like a surprise gift from him to him. Cute 🙂

Now, as a working professional who operates remotely, I had to tweak the next 20 days to make sure I had the 9am — 11am slot empty so I could go to the hospital as well. Parth hospital in itself operates on the principle of design-led process. You can witness 4–5 ECT sessions happening in parallel, seamlessly, and on time. As a caregiver, you’re just.. well… waiting outside…. chilling. Well, that was my dad. I had my laptop, a couple of cranky clients and a sleuth of unread emails to answer. Yes, I have taken work calls to address key issues from the waiting area.

Why is this information relevant? It’s for prospective patients and their families to know that the entire process is designed to be non disruptive. And that exactly was my experience. The noise was minimal, and people just knew what they had to do the moment they entered. Including myself, as I put in my earphones getting ready to hear about… well work stuff deserves a separate blog in itself 🙁

While at home, function as normal. The day should progress as it normally would, and except for impact on recent memory, there is no other effect on the patient. And the memory comes back after 30–40 days since the last ECT session.

One piece of advice: Be chill, the professionals know exactly what they’re doing. And the silence is as per the design… there’s nothing wrong anywhere. And if you see another person on the laptop, maybe offer them a shoulder to cry on.

Caregiving post ECT

Depending on the diagnosis and future course of action, the treatment is prescribed and as a caregiver, you can do whatever is in your capacity to get them to adhere to the treatment.

Start slow, be patient with them, and don’t mind repeating information. One thing which really helped us with the memory is my brother maintaining a journal to document key events in the day. And just like any other journal, he successfully filled up 1 page.

More sustained impact in terms of behavioural changes are manifested as the treatment stabilises.

Regardless, I wish I had more dramatic experiences to share (that’s what Karan Johar’s guests say on the couch).

So why is this blog even existing?

It’s for you to be free of any residual stigma around the ECT treatment and hope this helps you find your hope. As for my brother, through ECT at Parth Hospital he really did discovered his wings to fly over the metaphorical nest of his issues.

Credit/Source:

This blog was first/originally published on Medium. Brilliantly articulated by Pooja Peswani.

Banner Image by Freepik.com