Follow-up study of memory deficits after ECT

Twenty-four patients received ECT induced by either alternating sine wave or brief pulsed-square wave stimulus and were evaluated at follow-up for clinical functioning and subjective memory loss. The hypothesis of less memory loss in the group receiving a weaker stimulus (pulsed-square wave) was not supported. The two treatment groups and a group of controls showed no significant differences on the memory test. On measures of clinical functioning the sine wave group scored better on every measure than the square wave group, although not significantly better.

Changes in neuropsychological test performance after electroconvulsive therapy

A group of 231 psychiatric patients were evaluated (with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery) before and after electroconvulsive therapy. Improvement during the course of therapy was shown in 96% of the measures and significant improvement (p less than 0.05) occurred in 37.5% of the measures, indicating generally improved functioning. The performance of these patients on the pre-ECT testing was generally in the range characteristic of patients with documented brain damage, but the score improved during the course of treatment to the borderline normal level.