From: Robert Owen (rowen@technologist.com)
Date: Fri Oct 29 1999 - 17:48:47 MDT
TriStateF@aol.com wrote:
> Thanks for checking on this for me. I was told NOTHING about any out of
> pocket costs, only given medical and background type info, including that the
> treatment is experimental. Other than cost, my only concern is side effects.
> I will accept only very low risk treatments.
>
> Sherry
The medical opinion I solicited considers the risk vanishingly small. The slightly
controversial aspect concerns the BENEFITS. If insurable, it would certainly
be reasonable to obtain this treatment on merely heuristic grounds; but as
this is not the case, in my opinion your options are: [1] talk therapy; [2] a
new pharmacological regimen, perhaps combined with [1]; [3] transcranial
magnetic therapy; [4] ECT, perhaps limited to a unilateral application which
causes virtually no transient disorientation and which now is associated with
NO seizure activity; [5] a meditational approach, e.g. joining a local ZEN
community. Some extropian List members may have additional suggestions
and as extropians reject [5] as a desirable option.
Please know that the worst case scenario for unilateral ECT is being con-
vinced that the recovery room is full of onions (the smell of onions is a
universal response), feeling sleepy, and perhaps crying for a little while.
Except for somnolence, the mechanisms for these reactions is, as they
euphemistically say, "poorly understood", i.e. they haven't the foggiest
idea.
Good luck,
Bob
=======================
Robert M. Owen
Director
The Orion Institute
57 W. Morgan Street
Brevard, NC 28712-3659 USA
=======================
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