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SALT LAKE CITY — Imagine you have clinical depression. You’ve spent years trying all sorts of therapies and dozens of medications. Yet, the bad, foggy thoughts — including suicidal ones — just won’t go away.
There is still hope in the forms of alternative, lesser-known treatments for depression in Utah, such as “magnetic therapy.”
Peter Cornish, 60, of Murray, has spent his entire adult life fighting depression.
“I don’t know how many episodes I’ve had, but I’m sure it’s over 20,” he said. “Most of them have lasted three months.”
Cornish struggled to get out of bed and his anxiety soared. By 2008, Cornish had to retire from his career in IT and software testing. Electroconvulsive therapy was the last resort for Cornish. Understandably, he didn’t want to do it.
“That’s when I was losing hope,” he said. “I had been on a broad spectrum of different meds over the years and they weren’t working for me. So, that’s why we decided to try ECT.
“I don’t think anyone loves to go in-patient in a mental health unit,” he added. “On a scale of one to 10, where one is the worst depression, and 10 you’re feeling good, I was definitely at a 1.”
American cinema has given the public frightening ideas about ECT, too.
“You know, like ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ and so forth, where the person is having a full convulsion,” said Dr. Brian Mickey. “That doesn’t happen in modern ECT.”
Mickey administers that treatment at the University of Utah’s Neuropsychiatric Institute (UNI).
“We use brief pulses as opposed to sine wave stimulation,” he said. “Sine waves are what come out of your electrical outlets. That’s very bad for memory and cognition.”
In 2009, Cornish had one of his ECT sessions recorded and uploaded on YouTube. He lay in a hospital bed at UNI, with electrodes strapped to his forehead — not his temples. Cornish inhaled anesthesia for unconsciousness and paralysis.
“The whole idea about going under with an anesthetic, I was very happy about that,” Cornish chuckled.
His body twitched but did not violently shake, like in the movies. Before his medically-induced sleep, Cornish ranked his depression at a one? But 10 minutes later, he added, he felt like he was at a seven. “It was remarkable for me.”
Mickey said the area they were stimulating on Cornish is "connected with some other really important brain areas," and they've found are "responsible for depression."
To be sure, Mickey said the electrical pulses caused a seizure in Cornish.
“Seizures, although we don’t know exactly why, clearly cause sprouting of new neurons and new connections between neurons,” he said.
Seizures also release serotonin, dopamine and other neurochemicals, Mickey added. UNI, among other places, also offers transcranial magnetic stimulation, which doesn’t require anesthesia or cause seizures. During TMS, patients read or watch TV.
Magnetic therapies require several treatments per week for up to six weeks. Mickey said side effects include temporary pain and discomfort with TMS. With ECT, “people are going to have some degree of memory problems,” he said. “We do our best to minimize that.”
Cornish said ECT’s relief for depression wears away, so he's returned for treatments in 2013 and 2016. Still, he’s convinced the treatments were absolutely worth it.
“I’ve had the healthiest decade of my life,” Cornish said. “I facetiously say that it’s actually better than going to the dentist.”
Not all insurances support these treatments, though, which Cornish and Mickey call last resorts. They require extensive consultation with medical professionals first.
