ECT -- Dr. Fink's comments

[Guest guest]

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)