Clinical Neuroscience of ECT (CNECT)

"Classics in ECT" brings you this paper from 1977: The efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy and antidepressants in depression. Avery D, Winokur G. Biol Psychiatry. 1977 Aug;12(4):507-23. PMID:  889984 The abstract is copied below: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), antidepressants, and neither treatment were compared by reviewing 609 hospitalizations for depression from 1959 to 1969. The groups receiving ECT had a significantly (p less than 0.001) greater percentage of patient who had marked improvement or a complete response (49%) than either adequate or inadequate antidepressant therapy groups (27%) or the group which received neither ECT nor antidepressants (25%). If antidepressant failures who require ECT are included in the evaluation, the percentage total improvement with ECT (90%) is significantly (p less than 0.001) greater than the adequate (74%) or inadequate (60%) antidepressant groups, or neither treatment (60%). At the end of 7 weeks of hospitalization, 74% of the

"Classics in ECT" brings you this study from University of Iowa researchers in 1987: The  treatment  of  depression : electroconvulsive  therapy  v antidepressants: a naturalistic evaluation of 1,495 patients. Black DW, Winokur G, Nasrallah A. Compr Psychiatry. 1987 Mar-Apr;28(2):169-82. doi: 10.1016/0010-440x(87)90082-4. PMID:  3829660 The pdf is here . CONCLUSION Our study reports important findings relating to the in-hospital treatment of acute depression. ECT resulted in a significantly greater percentage of patients obtaining marked improvement at discharge compared with adequate antidepressants, inadequate antidepressants, and neither treatment. This difference was consistent for most variables investigated, though it must be conceded that the ECT group differed from the other groups and may not be fully comparable to them. The study gives additional support for the use of ECT in the treatment of schizodepression and it patients with mood incongruent delusions. The stu