Classics in ECT: Early Study of Continuation ECT From 1973

 "Classics in ECT" brings you this study from 1973, in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica:

The prophylactic value of extra ECT in depressive illness.

Barton JL, Mehta S, Snaith RP.Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1973;49(4):386-92. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1973.tb04432.x.PMID: 4746007


The pdf is here.

And from the text:





Here is a classic that is good to know about, but to not give much credence to. Despite the data being the data, this study just plain got it wrong, as decades of subsequent experience have show. C/M ECT has since been convincingly proven to be effective; this study was flawed in many ways...
One interesting finding in these data is the variable speed of response to ECT, with some patients achieving remission with a very small number of treatments.
Students/scholars of ECT will want to be familiar with this "two for the road" study, as a reminder that progress in ECT research is sometimes not linear...




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