LONGECITY

I've had clinical depression for over a decade. Back in the 90's (don't ask me when because I can't remember!), I had 27 bilateral ECT treatments over a several month time period. Even tho' the depression was TEMPORARILY lifted, I ended up losing a big chunk of time from my life that I have yet to recover. Also, my short term memory (although it has recovered somewhat -- I'm no longer asking people questions that I just asked 15 min. ago), has been greatly affected too.
This loss has forced me to switch professions, and has made life more difficult in general. I have a learning disability now that was not present before, and learning new ideas, theories, etc. has become a great and sometimes very frustrating challenge for me.

My question is this: is there ANYTHING out there that can help me to improve my memory? What about recovering my long term memory? My psychiatrist and psychologist have been absolutely no help to me regarding this problem, and I'm sick and tired of feeling so frustrated!

I guess that I should add that I have the following health problems:
1) Non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus
2) Hypercholesterimia
3) Fatty liver disease (fibrotic/borderline cirrhotic) -- NOT induced by drugs, ETOH, or viral Hep.
4) Clinical Depression, with Anxiety

...With a myriad of medications for all of the above mentioned crap!

Looking forward to hearing some, if any, suggestions!

hanarasel18

If you tell me what med's and doses you are taking I can help you.

Yours In Health

Darn! I typed it all out, and somehow it was all deleted! Ok, well, here I go again!

LIVER:
Ursodiol (aka: Actigall) 1800 mg po qd
Vit. C 1000 IU po qd
Vit. E 400 IU po qd
Xenical (for wt. loss, but also helps liver in a roundabout way) 120 mg po tid

NIDDM:
Actos 15 mg po qd

HYPERCHOLESTERIMIA:
Lipitor 20 mg po qd
Plus a low fat diet

CLINICAL DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY:
Lexapro 20 mg po qd
Lithium 1200 mg po qd
Ativan 0.25 - 0.50 mg po q 6 hrs prn (rarely use anymore)
Trazedone 25 - 50 mg po q hs prn (rarely use anymore)

MISCELLANEOUS:
MVI 1 tab po qd
Zyrtec 10 mg po qd for allergies
Mega PC-35 4-6 capsules/day po (recommended by a doctor-friend who uses
this site)
He said that he thinks perhaps pro-col (? spelling) with choline might be a good
choice, and to mention it to you.

Eagerly awaiting your reply! --hanarasel18--

Hello hanarasel18

ETC induced damage to the brain can be helped over time to some extend by nootropics.

My recommendations:

Take 1,600 mg of PPC 2x daily (known as phoschol, Lipostabil) instead of your MEGA PC (this can more quickly resolve your fatty liver, lower cholesterol better and will provide a better choline donor for ACh production), add Bile Acid Factors by Jarrow 2 tabs per meal.

If you have recent blood work pm me your liver and glucose results.

Huperzine A can in most cases work right away, while it may help you faster than anything else for “memory”, a formula designed to correct the factors involved would be far more effective in the long run.

I’ll recommend a formula for you to take, but for now try 300 mcg of huperzine A for a few days and let me know what happens.

Yours In Health

Piracetam may not be of any use to you. If that was an open question.

http://www.ncbi.nlm....t_uids=12394531

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Effect of piracetam on ECT-induced cognitive disturbances: a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study.

Tang WK, Ungvari GS, Leung HC.

Department of Psychiatry, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, China. tangwk@cuhk.edu.hk

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is still the fastest, most effective, and frequently life-saving therapeutic intervention in several forms of depression and some other psychiatric disorders. Transient memory disturbances are frequent after ECT. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted to investigate the effects of piracetam on ECT-induced confusion and memory disturbances. Thirty-eight consecutively admitted patients with depressive illness or schizophrenia requiring ECT were given either piracetam or an identical-looking placebo during the period of ECT treatment and for 2 weeks afterward. Daily dosage of piracetam was 7.2 g, given orally for the first 2 weeks while patients underwent ECT (loading phase), followed by 4.8 g for the rest of the study period. Participants were evaluated by standardized clinical rating scales and cognitive psychologic tests 1 to 2 days before ECT, 1 day after their third and sixth ECT treatments, and 2 weeks after they had completed their ECT courses. Piracetam had no significant effect in preventing ECT-induced memory disturbances. All clinical ratings were consistently, albeit not significantly, better in the piracetam group, suggesting that piracetam may have augmented the effects of ECT.

PMID: 12394531 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Yeesh, what a horror story!

I have resistant depression and I will never (willingly) get ECT. SSRIs are as far as I want to go, to my doc's annoyance. Screw her; its not her brain.

I believe that inositol supplements are recommended when taking lithium (something else I don't want).

Other than that, exercise and diet. I love Barry Sears, his 'Zone' program has helped a lot of people. I can't stick to it exactly, but it is a target I aim for. [I eat way more plant fat than Sears would recommend (nuts and seeds)]

Fenugreek supposedly can help with type-2 diabetes.

Not only is it a nightmare, I neglected to mention that I was forced between two choices at the time: ECT or state hospitalization. I knew that I'd never see my kids (due to my then-husband's attitude towards mental illness), so I chose the lesser of two evils. Anyway...that's all in the past now, thank goodness. Interesting that I can remember that, but not recall my kids' childhoods!

Hana, have you explored the neurostimulator (pacemaker-like) device from Cyberonics. It stimulates the vagus nerve, originally intended for epilepsy patients, the device was also found to improve mood in those patients. They tested it in severely depressed people with similar results.

It costs $25,000USD to implant the device, and an additional $15,000USD every 5-10 years to replace the battery.

Not only is it a nightmare, I neglected to mention that I was forced between two choices at the time:  ECT or state hospitalization.  I knew that I'd never see my kids (due to my then-husband's attitude towards mental illness), so I chose the lesser of two evils.  Anyway...that's all in the past now, thank goodness.  Interesting that I can remember that, but not recall my kids' childhoods! 

So you really didn't have a choice, did you?

You have my most sincere sympathies.

Although the neurostimulator sounds like an interesting concept, it's also a very expensive treatment that I HIGHLY doubt would be covered by my insurance. Esp. since the APA insists that ECT is safe and w/o long term effects (hardy har har, that's so funny i forgot to laugh!).

I understand.

As for your memory problems, alongside Huperzine A which LifeMirage has recommended, I would also consider using Withania Somnifera (Ashwagandha root). Below is a study determining the effects of one particular extract from this herb, it is a mouse study.

http://www.ncbi.nlm....t_uids=15711595

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Neuritic regeneration and synaptic reconstruction induced by withanolide A.

Kuboyama T, Tohda C, Komatsu K.

Research Center for Ethnomedicines, Institute of Natural Medicine, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, 2630 Sugitani, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.

We investigated whether withanolide A (WL-A), isolated from the Indian herbal drug Ashwagandha (root of Withania somnifera), could regenerate neurites and reconstruct synapses in severely damaged neurons. We also investigated the effect of WL-A on memory-deficient mice showing neuronal atrophy and synaptic loss in the brain. Axons, dendrites, presynapses, and postsynapses were visualized by immunostaining for phosphorylated neurofilament-H (NF-H), microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2), synaptophysin, and postsynaptic density-95 (PSD-95), respectively. Treatment with A beta(25-35) (10 microM) induced axonal and dendritic atrophy, and pre- and postsynaptic loss in cultured rat cortical neurons. Subsequent treatment with WL-A (1 microM) induced significant regeneration of both axons and dendrites, in addition to the reconstruction of pre- and postsynapses in the neurons. WL-A (10 micromol kg(-1) day(-1), for 13 days, p.o.) recovered A beta(25-35)-induced memory deficit in mice. At that time, the decline of axons, dendrites, and synapses in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus was almost recovered. WL-A is therefore an important candidate for the therapeutic treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, as it is able to reconstruct neuronal networks.

PMID: 15711595 [PubMed - in process]