Re: ECT -- Dr. Fink's comments

[Guest guest]

Thanks for forwarding Dr. Fink's comments. I certainly hope that

some doctor somewhere will take these questions, find the answer

directly from Dr. Freeman (the neurologist of Greg Hicok who is the

PLS patient) and initiate a small trial to confirm or not confirm

this effect. I know that some short term memory loss is commonly

seen as a side effect of ECT. Is that the " big risk " that these

doctors are so concerned with? If so, then with the last year I've

had, I'd say thats a two for one special!

-Wayne

> Hi All,

>

> For the new people who have joined us recently, I'm on the SPF

Board of

> Directors and I've been around since the beginning of PLS-Friends

so I know

> several people who share our disorders. (I received a PLS dx in

1997.) Dr.

> Fink is the SPF Medical Advisor so I forwarded Wayne's post to him

and asked

> for his opinion. Dr. Fink will be presenting at our national

TeamWalk in

> August so if any further discussion comes from this post, I can

take it to

> Lexington and share it with him.

>

> Here is Dr. Fink's reply.

>

> Hi ,

>

> I think this response to ECT is fascinating.

>

> There are many questions: how firm is the diagnosis of PLS? how

> rapidly was this progressing? what were the neurologic findings

before

> ECT? What aspects of the neurologic examination were changed? Was

> functional improvement (walking) associated with a change

(addition or

> subtraction) of medication? Was depression improved by ECT? Has

> walking improvement been sustained?

>

> Although I share the reservations about commencing a clinical

trial, I

> would be very interested to learn if other individuals, with lower

> extremity spasticity from a variety of causes (multiple sclerosis

or

> spinal cord injury, for example), ever benefited from ECT.

>

> Sincerely,

>

>

>

> K. Fink, M.D.

> Professor, Department of Neurology

> University of Michigan

>

>

> Gentner

>

> Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.

> Helen Keller (1880-1968)

>

>

>