Has any of your dementia/depressed loved ones had electroconvulsive treatments and your thoughts and outcomes on it?

ECT can have a side effect of impaired memory. It can also work for severe depression that's resistant to everything else. And severe depression is one of the most painful awful conditions a human being can experience. If and only if all other alternatives are out of the question and the diagnosis of depression is certain, it could be appropriate. Here is an entry point into the medical literature on this: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22330702

How old is your mother, katie? The mid-stages of dementia can be the most challenging. To me it seems to be the time when people are most aware of the losses of their abilities and are trying to regain a sense of their old life. I wish there was an answer. Maybe one day there will be.

My mother has chronic anxiety and went into depression after my father's death. The depression was not as deep as your mother's, though. My mother's doctor started her on Celexa. I'm not sure if it has helped my mother, but something like this may help yours. I don't know if I would allow ect unless something could assure me that there would be a certain outcome, based on their results from others who had dementia. If it would prolong her life or improve the quality, I would say yes. What I would be reluctant to do is let them do ect because it works on younger people without dementia. Someone would have to talk facts with me.

My main consideration would be if the depression and restless wanting to be elsewhere was all part of the mid-stage dementia. It is a time when things and places are not setting right in the mind of the person, and they are looking for reasons they don't feel right.

Is your mother under the care of a geriatric doctor or team? I have a feeling there is a better solution for your mother than ect. Maybe it would be good to get her stabilized in a place where her anxiety and depression are both the lowest they can be.

Thank you so much for all those who have posted on my questions and concerns. Comforting to have people respond who care. Don't really have a support system. I know now to go with my heart instead of medical protocols, its futile and traumatizing to her. I'm definitely calling hospice.

I also am a nurse, so difficult to be objective as a daughter. She has been battling both depression and anxiety for over 40 yrs since my dad was a chronic adulterer and then she married his best freind the mean alcoholic..this is her life at home being neglected. When shes with me she is happy for a week, then gets riddled with anxiety and wants to go home, she is obcessed with it. I get her well, she goes home and goes into bed with multiple physical complaints and gets so sick from not thriving she ends up in the hospital again. Shes not happy anywhere for any length of time. Miserable while in the nursing home for rehab. Her husband has detached and doesn't want her home. All she wants is love and attention from him, never got it, never will. When she told her psych Dr she was depressed and wished she could just go to sleep and die in a rare moment of clarity... that's when she was petitioned to go for tx. I'm overwhelmed, I've been taking care of her emotionally since I was 4, physically for the past 10 yrs. I feel in my heart that ect won't help, my mpoa is meaningless. If she wouldn't be so obcessed with going home she'd go back to me. Don't know what to do to make her happy, safe and comfortable. That's all I want for her.

I tend to agree with the above poster. Your mom has dementia and with dementia comes depression. Is she on an antidepressant? That's a kinder, gentler way to go than ECT. With ECT there is often memory loss ("they" say it's short term but I don't believe that). Your mom probably has enough memory loss without adding the effects of ECT to it.

You don't say how old your mom is or what other ailments she may have but from what I know of ECT, what I've seen of it in the course of my career (nurse), and what you've written if it were my mom I wouldn't do it. She has dementia. Nothing is going to help that and I think the ECT could make it worse.

I too would call hospice. Calling hospice isn't like pulling a trigger. It doesn't mean that your mom is ready to pass away this instant. But it's good to get them on board when there is failure to thrive. They can treat your mom's symptoms and see that she's comfortable.

My mom did what your mom is doing. She took to her bed, she was very depressed, she didn't eat or drink anything, and as a result her electrolytes got screwed up and she didn't survive. If someone thinks that depression isn't fatal then they're a fool. I wish I had called hospice but I had no clue that she could die, that she was in the process of dying. I warned her about blood clots but it got to the point where I couldn't get her on the phone anymore. I'm a nurse and I couldn't see it objectively! She went downhill very quickly.

Anyway.....make her comfortable. That's what I wish I had done for my mom.

Don't know if you're the poster who mentioned this a few days ago. Don't remember the question...oh, I know, the only thing it asked was from advice from others whose loved one HAD the treatment. So I didn't respond.

Your post here is asking about the treatments. So here's my two cents. In advance, I'm rather opinionated and not afraid to share. ;)

I looked it up that few days ago when I read the question. I would never do that to my own mom. If she is failing to thrive? That's her body's way of trying to leave this earth, in my opinion. And nobody will let her.

Leave her alone. I think it is probably time for hospice.

The least invasive of these techniques is called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), in which electric pulses are sent by a device held to the forehead to the prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain that is connected to mood. That being said, if those areas are destroyed, TMS will not work. So the TMS becomes a diagnostic tool to differentiate between functional and non-functional areas of the brain.