RCT of Sham ECT from Hillside Hospital in the 1950s: Republished in JECT from Dr. Fink
Out on PubMed, in JECT, from Dr. Max Fink, is this paper:
Random Controlled Trial of Sham Electroconvulsive Therapy and Other Novel Therapies: Historical Notes.
J ECT. 2021 Mar 4. doi: 10.1097/YCT.0000000000000759. Online ahead of print.PMID: 33661180
The abstract is copied below:
Critics of electroconvulsive therapy argue that the treatment's efficacy is unproven by random controlled trial comparisons with sham treatments. Their reviews fail to consider sham and random controlled trial studies completed in 1950s, the data republished here.and a table and the Discussion:
In this historical review, Dr. Fink responds to the recent attack on the ECT evidence base by well-known anti-ECT agitator, British psychologist, John Read. Dr. Fink describes in detail the research and clinical operation at Hillside Hospital in New York in the 1950s. The data from a 54-patient study, overlooked in recent reviews of the sham-controlled ECT literature, are republished here, summarized in the table above. ECT was overwhelmingly shown to be effective. Also discussed are studies of insulin coma vs. chlorpromazine, flurothyl, and imipramine, as well as the pioneering of pharmaco-EEG.
These new "historical notes" remain fully relevant today and merit a full read, ~15 minutes.
Dr Fink's critical early work on ECT remains as important today as when it was first published. This work, along with other similar early studies, and more modern clinical trials comparing weak versus strong forms of ECT, easily meet the modern requirements for proof of efficacy
ReplyDeleteVaughn McCall