Today's post continues our series, "Classics in ECT", with what is likely the first report of the treatment of Parkinson's Disease (PD) with ECT. It is from the Tulane University School of Medicine in 1959:


Observations on the effect of electroshock treatment on patients with parkinsonism.
FROMM GH.
Bull Tulane Univ Med Fac. 1959 Feb;18(2):71-3. No abstract available. 
PMID:
 
13629283

 The pdf is here.

 Short on details, this is nonetheless a very interesting historical document. I thank Dr. Pascal Sienaert for bringing it to my attention.
Most ECT practitioners today know that ECT has significant beneficial effects on both the core motor symptoms and associated behavioral symptoms of PD. That this indication for ECT has been so little studied in controlled trials is quite unfortunate, in my opinion.

Comments

  1. William V McCallApril 13, 2020 at 2:35 PM

    Although Parkinson's Disease did not 'make the cut' of FDA- approved indications , Parkinson's Disease is reliably improved by ECT, with or without concurrent depression, 60 years after this first report. ECT is a viable alternative to deep brain stimulation (DBS) when Parkinson's Disease are not sufficient to control disabling symptoms.

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