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Today on Schizophrenia: 3 Moms in the Trenches, we’re joined by Dr. Steve Olson—psychiatrist, longtime advocate for clozapine, and a clinician experienced in using Electroconvulsive Therapy when it can truly help. ECT is often misunderstood, especially in the context of schizophrenia, so today we’re digging into what it is, when it works, and what families should know. Dr. Olson helps us separate myth from reality and explore whether ECT has a place in treatment for our loved ones.

Questions for Dr. Olson

Understanding ECT

1. For families who only know ECT from movies, how do you explain what it actually is today?
   
   
   
2. What symptoms or situations in schizophrenia make you consider ECT as an option?
   
   
   

Effectiveness & Use Cases
3. How effective can ECT be for schizophrenia, and what outcomes have you seen in practice?
4. Are there particular subtypes or symptom profiles where ECT is most helpful—or least helpful?
5. How quickly do patients typically respond, compared to medication changes?

Clozapine Context
6. You’ve been a strong advocate for clozapine. In what scenarios would you consider ECT in addition to clozapine?
7. For someone who hasn’t responded fully even to clozapine, how do you decide whether ECT could help?

Safety, Stigma, and Practicalities
8. What are the most common fears or misconceptions families have about ECT, and how do you address them?

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Randye Kaye
Mindy Greiling
Miriam (Mimi) Feldman

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Moms kick off Season Six, with a sneak peek back at the past few months, and a look ahead.

Coming up: ECT, new research, microdosing?

What would you like us to cover?

Contact us on our facebook page, or via any of our websites.

https://www.randyekaye.com/schizophrenia-three-moms-in-the-trenches

or write randye@randyekaye.com

Links:

Corey Minor Smith Panel on Homelessness:

https://www.youtube.com/live/PJo8v5orjPk?si=W1Ae9bvw0FVjEI1M

Hosts:

Who:

Randye Kaye - was a morning Radio Personality bringing humor to CT families when her own son was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Now she is still a Broadcaster, Actress, Voice Talent, Speaker, and Author (Ben Behind his Voices, Happier Made Simple)

Miriam Feldman - is an artist, writer, and the mother of an adult son with schizophrenia. Her book, He Came in With It chronicles her family's story and was released to rave reviews on July 21st, 2020.

Mindy Greiling - Mindy Greiling was a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives for twenty years. She helped found the nation's first state mental health caucus, which successfully lobbied for a significant increase in Minnesota's mental health funding Her acclaimed memoir is Fix What You Can.

Want to know more?
Join our facebook page
Our websites:
Randye Kaye
Mindy Greiling
Miriam (Mimi) Feldman

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks!

Guests: authors of the new book (same name) -

Katharine Dougherty PhD, and Lisa Mann, PhD , and Dr. Rocco Marotta-a psychiatrist known for his successful treatment of "hopeless" cases-and practiced with remarkable success by the team he led at The Lodge program at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut.

Written for families struggling to navigate the world of neuropsychiatric illness and useful for providers looking for a different approach to the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders

The book can be found at the following sites by putting in the title and authors: amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, sdppublishingsolutions.com

The Center for the Treatment and Study of Neuropsychiatric Disorders: silverhillhospital.org/TheCenter

Why relabel SMI NBD (neuropsychiatric brain disease )?

THEMES:

• Hope and persistence are critical
• No two cases are exactly the same
• Medication and adherence and sobriety are important to sustained stability
• It takes a team and long-term relationships to sustain stability
• Communication among team members is critical
• Taking small risks and succeeding leads to other risks
• Rigid ideology has no place when you are untangling complexity and nuance
• The diagnosis of NBD is often tied to a sense of shame and failure for patients and families
• There are many important layers to the recovery journey
• Constant reevaluation is important and this includes the importance of patient feedback

Poetry from Zachary Sutphin

"White pink blue"

White pink blue

The pills look like candy

But taste like defeat.

They taste like mother’s advice.

Correct, we grow too see

I take them Because otherwise,

I might start believing.. believing in things that can't be believed

in minds unlike mine

They tell me it’s illness.

But what if it’s clarity?

What if losing grip

Was divine sanity

Still, I take them.....

For the full poem, see our "Schizophrenia 3 Moms" Facebook page

Thanks for liking and sharing the podcast!

Mindy and her book: https://mindygreiling.com/

Randye and her book: https://randyekaye.com/

Miriam and her book: https://www.miriam-feldman.com/

Want to know more?
Join our facebook page
Our websites:
Randye Kaye
Mindy Greiling
Miriam (Mimi) Feldman