Classics in ECT: 5-Year Follow Published in 1953

"Classics in ECT" brings you this longitudinal study from 1953:

Electroconvulsive therapy; a five-year study of results.

ALEXANDER GH.J Nerv Ment Dis. 1953 Mar;117(3):244-50.PMID: 13070038

The pdf is here.

And from the text:


This is a 5-year longitudinal follow up of patients treated between 1940-1944 at Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. Half of the patients remained remitted for the 5-year period; patients with diagnoses other than schizophrenia were twice as likely to sustain remission.  (Still, about one third of patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia remained remitted.) There are many caveats here, including the now-obsolete diagnostic schemas, but the point is that mood disorder patients fared better. This was with unmodified ECT in the very early days of ECT in the US.

History buffs will want to read this short paper in full, ~8 minutes.


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