Classics in ECT: Review of Therapeutic Efficacy, Archives of General Psychiatry, 1963


"Classics in ECT" brings you this review article:


The therapeutic efficacy of ECT: a review of the literature.

RIDDELL SA.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1963 Jun;8:546-56. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.1963.01720120020004.PMID: 13982224




The pdf is here.

With apologies to blog readers, this is a nasty piece of work, and it does not really have "classic" status. I bring it you, so you know it is out there. When I found it on PubMed, I looked forward to an authoritative, albeit outdated, literature review. Unfortunately, it reads like anti-ECT propaganda. The author is a "graduate in psychology" from Surrey, England.  Poor vetting by the Archives, it seems...Apparently, this is in the ongoing tradition of British psychology dissing ECT, abetted by American psychiatry. Please don't read it (~20 minutes) or pass it on...

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