Classics in ECT: ECT in Patients With TB, American Journal of Psychiatry, 1949

 "Classics in ECT" brings you this article from the Green Journal in 1949:

The use of electroshock therapy in treating psychiatric patients with associated pulmonary tuberculosis.

CLOSE HP.Am J Psychiatry. 1949 Nov;106(5):352-7. doi: 10.1176/ajp.106.5.352.PMID: 18143865 

The pdf is here.


And from the text:

This is a fascinating case series from "back in the day." Unmodified ECT and old therapies for TB, including phreniclasis (crushing of the phrenic nerve).
ECT allowed sufficient treatment of severe agitation or catatonia, so that TB treatments, such as they were, could be carried out.
One is reminded of the discovery of the antidepressant properties of MAOIs, with iproniazid as a TB drug.
History of ECT buffs, or students of the abnormal chest x-ray, will want to read this paper in full, ~15 minutes.



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