Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T11:15:40.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Mode of Action of Electro-Convulsive Therapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

W. Ross Ashby
W. Ross Ashby*
Affiliation:
Department of Research, Barnwood House, Gloucester, and The Burden Neurological Institute, Bristol
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

How electro-convulsive therapy (E.C.T.) acts, what is the chain of cause and effect from the electrical application to the clinical improvement, are questions whose answers are as uncertain as ever, in spite of the importance of such knowledge to psychiatry and in spite of the researches of nearly twenty years. The experiments reported in this paper are an attempt to elucidate the links of one possible chain. What are the possibilities? I shall review them briefly, restricting the review to the physiological and biochemical aspects and omitting any reference to the psychological or psycho-analytical.

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 99 , Issue 415 , April 1953 , pp. 202 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1953 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Altschule, M. D., Cram, J. E., and Tillotson, K. J., Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 1948, 59, 29.Google Scholar
Idem , Parkhurst, B. H., and Tillotson, K. J., J. Clin. Endocrin., 1949a, 9, 440.Google Scholar
Idem , Altschule, L. H., and Tillotson, K. J., Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 1949b, 62, 624.Google Scholar
Idem , Promisel, E., Parkhurst, B. H., and Grunebaum, H., ibid., 1950, 64, 641.Google Scholar
Ashby, W. Ross, J. Ment. Sci., 1949, 95, 275.Google Scholar
Idem, ibid., 1952a, 98, 81.Google Scholar
Idem, Design for a Brain, 1952b. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Brody, S., Psychosom. Med., 1952, 14, 94.Google Scholar
Campbell, J., and Lucas, C. C., Biochem. J., 1951, 48, 241.Google Scholar
Cheng, C. P., Sayers, G., Goodman, L. S., and Swinyard, C. A., Am. J. Physiol., 1949, 159, 426.Google Scholar
Cleghorn, R. A., Graham, B. F., Saffran, M., and Cameron, D. E., Canad. Med. Ass. J., 1950, 63, 329.Google Scholar
Clow, H. E., and Prout, C. T., Am. J. Psychiat., 1946, 103, 179.Google Scholar
Cohn, J. B., Karnosh, L. J., and Stecher, R. M., Dis. Nerv. Syst., 1951, 12, 291.Google Scholar
Colowick, S. P., Cori, G. T., and Slein, M. W., J. Biol. Chem., 1947, 168, 583.Google Scholar
Dawson, R. M. C., and Richter, D., Am. J. Physiol., 1950, 160, 203.Google Scholar
Farrell, G. L., and McCann, S. M., Endocrin., 1952, 50, 274.Google Scholar
Fisher, R. A., The Design of Experiments, 1935. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Folley, S. J., and Greenbaum, A. L., Biochem. J., 1946, 40, 46.Google Scholar
Fortier, C., Endocrin., 1951, 49, 782.Google Scholar
Funkenstein, D. H., Greenblatt, M., and Solomon, H. C., J. Nerv. Ment. Dis., 1948, 108, 409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gellhorn, E., and Safford, H., Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med., 1948, 68, 74.Google Scholar
Glaser, G. H., and Hoch, P. H., Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 1951, 66, 697.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, M. L., Endocrin., 1950, 47, 347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, G. W., J. Physiol., 1948, 107, 412, 418, 430, 436.Google Scholar
Hawkins, R. D., and Nishikawara, M., Endocrin., 1949, 45, 108.Google Scholar
Hayes, K. J., Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 1950, 63, 102.Google Scholar
Henriques, S. B., Henriques, O. B., and Selye, H., Endocrin., 1949, 45, 53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoagland, H., Callaway, E., Elmadjian, F., and Pincus, G., Psychosom. Med., 1950, 12, 73.Google Scholar
Klein, J. R., and Olsen, N. S., J. Biol. Chem., 1947, 167, 747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kochakian, C. D., and Vail, V. N., ibid., 1944, 156, 779.Google Scholar
Lashley, K. S., in Cerebral Mechanisms in Behavior; the Hixon Symposium, 1952. New York.Google Scholar
Lewin, E., and Wassen, E., Lancet, 1949, ii, 993.Google Scholar
Long, C. N. H., and Fry, E. G., Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med., 1945, 59, 67.Google Scholar
Lorimer, F. M., Segal, M. M., and Stein, S. N., E.E.G. and Clin. Neurophysiol., 1949, 1, 343.Google Scholar
McIlwain, H., Anguiano, G., and Cheshire, J. D., Biochem. J., 1951, 50, 12.Google Scholar
Markee, J. E., Sawyer, C. H., and Hollinshead, W. H., Endocrin., 1946, 38, 345.Google Scholar
Mason, H. L., Power, M. H., Rynearson, E. H., Ciaramelli, L. C., Li, C. H., and Evans, H. M., J. Clin. Endocrin., 1948, 8, 1.Google Scholar
Mikkelsen, W. P., and Hutchens, T. T., Endocrin., 1948, 42, 394.Google Scholar
Najjar, V. A., and Barrett, R., Vit. and Horm., 1945, 3, 23.Google Scholar
Prokop, L., Klin. Med., 1947, 2, 584.Google Scholar
Recant, L., Hume, D. M., Forsham, P. H., and Thorn, G. W., J. Clin. Endocrin., 1950, 10, 187.Google Scholar
Rees, L., and King, G. M., J. Ment. Sci., 1951, 97, 376.Google Scholar
Iidem, ibid., 1952, 98, 401.Google Scholar
Rome, H. P., and Braceland, J. F., Proc. Staff Meet., Mayo Clin., 1950, 25, 495.Google Scholar
Roth, M., J. Ment. Sci., 1952, 98, 44.Google Scholar
Sayers, G., and Sayers, M. A., Endocrin., 1947, 10, 265.Google Scholar
Scharrer, E., and Scharrer, B., Biol. Rev., 1937, 12, 185.Google Scholar
Selye, H., J. Clin. Endocrin., 1946, 6, 117.Google Scholar
Idem , “The Story of the Adaptation Syndrome,” Acta, Montreal, Canada, 1952.Google Scholar
Smith, J. J., Quart. J. Stud. Alcohol, 1950, 11, 190.Google Scholar
Smith, P. E., Anat. Rec., 1926, 32, 221.Google Scholar
Sprague, R. G., Am. J. Med., 1951, 4, 567.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stadie, W. C., Haugaard, N., and Hills, A. G., J. Biol. Chem., 1950, 184, 617.Google Scholar
Talbot, N. B., Albright, F., Saltzman, A. H., Zygmuntowicz, A., and Wixom, R., J. Clin. Endocrin., 1947, 7, 331.Google Scholar
Thorn, G. W., Forsham, P. H., and Prunty, F. G. P., J.A.M.A., 1948, 137, 1005.Google Scholar
Tipton, S. R., Endocrin., 1944, 34, 181.Google Scholar
Torda, C., and Wolff, H. G., Am. J. Physiol., 1952, 169, 140.Google Scholar
Venning, E. H., Hoffmann, M. M., and Browne, J. S. L., Endocrin., 1944, 35, 49.Google Scholar
Wikler, A., and Frank, K., Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med., 1948, 67, 464.Google Scholar
Yates, F., The Design and Analysis of Factorial Experiments. Harpenden, 1937.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.