Hi Art Chick,
The main question is, how severe / debilitaing is the depression?
Lydia's (my partner of 20+ years) father died, after a long battle with heart surgery complications, in January of 2001. Her mother, Jean, had been suffering minor depression for most of the 6 months of his hospitalization between the surgery and passing. Her GP had perscribed some mild anti-depressants. Jean seemed OK for a few months after her husband's death, but by spring of 2001 was exibiting signs of a manic / deprssive cycle, phychosis, and even suicidal thoughts.
Jean has had a long battle with this, that I don't need to go into here, but ulitmately, Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT) has litterally been a life-saver for her. It was administered under a hospital requested court order at first, but so far she is continuing with the maintenance treatments at her own discretion.
ECT is not for everyone, but for those who do not respond to medications, or can not tollerate the side effects, it can be critical to their recovery. Please don't imagine scenes from "One Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest", it simply isn't like that anymore. If you were to witness someone receiving ECT, you might see their toes twitch, and that's about it. The worst side effect is a temporary short-term memory loss.
Feel free to PM me if you'd like more details.
Take Care,
Scuba-sass