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 convinced 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