Shock Therapy...IT'S BACK - Famous Patients Who Had ECT

Written by SANDRA G. BOODMAN The Washington Post

FAMOUS PATIENTS WHO HAD ECT:

Ernest Hemingway fatally shot himself after being released from the Mayo Clinic, where he had undergone ECT.

James Forrestal, the first U.S. secretary of defense, committed suicide in 1949. Forrestal, 57, had received a series of insulin coma treatments, a precursor of ECT.

Poet Sylvia Plath described her shock treatments in her 1971 book, "The Bell Jar." She wrote, "with each flash a great jolt drubbed me till I thought my bones would break and the sap fly out of me like a split plant."

Former Sen. Thomas Eagleton (D-Mo.) was forced to relinquish his spot as vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket in 1972.

Performer and political activist Paul Robeson underwent a series of ECT treatments in London in 1961.

At 17, rock star Lou Reed was given shock treatments designed to "cure" his homosexuality at a New York state mental hospital.

Film actress Frances Farmer received shock treatments while confined to a state mental hospital in Washington.

New Zealand writer Janet Frame described her harrowing experiences with ECT in a 1961 autobiography.

Former Boston Red Sox outfielder Jimmy Piersall wrote that ECT helped pull him out of a serious depression in the early 1950s.

Vaslav Nijinksy, the famed ballet dancer, underwent a series of insulin coma treatments in Europe in the 1930s.

Writer Zelda Fitzgerald underwent insulin coma treatments, a precursor of ECT, at a North Carolina hospital.

Literary critic Seymour Krim, a chronicler of the Beat Generation, received ECT in the late 1950s.

Movie actress Gene Tierney underwent eight shock treatments in 1955, according to her autobiography.

Pulitzer prize-winning poet Robert Lowell was hospitalized repeatedly for manic depression and alcoholism.

Film star Vivien Leigh, pictured in "Gone with the Wind," received shock treatments.

Talk show host Dick Cavett had a series of ECT treatments in 1980. "In my case, ECT was miraculous," he wrote.

Robert Pirsig described his experiences with ECT in his 1974 best-selling book, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."

Piano virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz received shock treatments for depression and later returned to the concert stage.

Concert pianist Oscar Levant described his 18 ECT treatments in his book "Memoirs of an Amnesiac."

Letters to the Washington Post on the "Shock Therapy" Article

I was impressed with the evenhandedness of "Shock Therapy: It's Back" [Cover, September 24]. I had 12 shock treatments in early 1995 and 17 early this year. The results? I have major memory loss of at least the past two years. I still get somewhat confused when driving, even in familiar areas.

I retired from my job between the two series of treatments, and there were three different retirement parties for me. I have no recollection of any of them. I have kept a daily journal for the past two years. Most of it is so unfamiliar to me that it could have been written by somebody else.

Another result of the treatments is that I am alive to write this; I did not kill myself. I believe that my "cure," if any of us can be cured of our maladies of the mind and of the soul, will come from my continuing talk therapy. Recovering from depression is real work, and neither pill nor machine can substitute for the labor involved.

A fellow human who has been trained can make the work of recovery just bearable, but possible. It is the human touch that makes the difference; the hand that can reach to the bottom of the barrel to find me, that can give a shove from behind or a pull from ahead and that can squeeze my hand in encouragement as we move ahead together.

I have the utmost respect for people in the mental health fields. I intensely hope that researchers will be doing studies that will shed more light on the memory problems connected with ECT [electroconvulsive therapy]. There is research going on into treatments with similarities to ECT and continuing research into many aspects of depressive illness.

With managed care doing its part, perhaps we can look forward to bringing down the true costs of serious depression, which are suffering, broken physical health, broken homes, lost productivity and suicide.

Ann M. Hargrove
Arlington