Classics in ECT: Decreasing Use of ECT, Odd Juxtaposition With Praise of Thalidomide in AM J Psych, 1961

"Classics in ECT" brings you these "clinical notes"  from the December, 1961 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry:





A brief "clinical note" about the decreased use of ECT in a Chicago hospital in 1960 compared to 1958 appeared immediately after a note about thalidomide as an hypnotic agent. 

The two are actually thematically related in that they both are part of the early 1960s phenomenon of unbridled optimism for pharmaceutical agents; the ECT note suggesting that antidepressant medications would nearly obviate the need for ECT, the thalidomide note praising the drug as a replacement for barbiturates, with no hint of safety concerns. We all know what happened soon after that: thalidomide was taken off the market after it was found to be teratogenic, ECT soldiered on.

Both of these notes make very good "classics" reading, the ECT one as a period piece, the thalidomide one as an "oh no"-fill-you-with-dread read...

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