This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (16)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Depression  • Alert me on articles by topic

Food and Drug Administration Action Is Required

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2000;57:445-446.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

SUBSTANTIAL research funds and energy have been expended over several decades in attempts to determine the benefits and risks of bilateral and right unilateral electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Proponents of each method are divided into opposing camps; having been on both sides of the issue, I believe I can fairly state the arguments for each side as follows.

Those favoring bilateral ECT point to the controlled trials demonstrating its greater efficacy and discount its more pronounced adverse cognitive effects as being transient and not different from those of right unilateral ECT weeks or months after a course of treatment. The very infrequent occurrence of prolonged memory impairment after bilateral ECT is acknowledged, but it is held to be a small price to pay for the reduced patient morbidity and mortality thought to result from the use of bilateral ECT.

Those favoring right unilateral ECT point to the controlled trials showing therapeutic . . . [Full Text of this Article]

RELATED ARTICLES

A Prospective, Randomized, Double-blind Comparison of Bilateral and Right Unilateral Electroconvulsive Therapy at Different Stimulus Intensities
Harold A. Sackeim, Joan Prudic, D. P. Devanand, Mitchell S. Nobler, Sarah H. Lisanby, Shoshana Peyser, Linda Fitzsimons, Bobba J. Moody, and Jenifer Clark
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2000;57(5):425-434.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Titrated Moderately Suprathreshold vs Fixed High-Dose Right Unilateral Electroconvulsive Therapy: Acute Antidepressant and Cognitive Effects
W. Vaughn McCall, David M. Reboussin, Richard D. Weiner, and Harold A. Sackeim
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2000;57(5):438-444.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Efficacy of ECT in Depression: A Meta-Analytic Review
Pagnin et al.
Focus 2008;6:155-162.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Antidepressant Use by Race
KALES et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2001;158:974-975.
FULL TEXT  

Use of Suprathreshold Electroconvulsive Therapy
Taylor
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2001;58:607-607.
FULL TEXT  

Electrode Placement and Electroconvulsive Therapy: A Search for the Chimera
Fink et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2001;58:607-608.
FULL TEXT  

What Is the Optimal ECT Strategy?
JWatch Psychiatry 2000;2000:4-4.
FULL TEXT