Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T13:09:39.022Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The use of Electroplexy (E.C.T.) in Psychiatric Syndromes Complicating Pregnancy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

S. Smith*
Affiliation:
Barrow Hospital, Barrow Gurney, Bristol

Extract

Electroplexy is now a widely accepted and used treatment in psychiatric practice. Primarily it is by far the most reliable means of terminating or resolving depressive attacks, months or indeed years before the anticipated remission of these illnesses on their own accord. Less commonly it is also regarded as an effective treatment in some schizophrenic states, particularly the acute type, or schizophreniform illness, “but actually most schizophrenics are treated at some stage of their illness with electrically induced convulsions” (Kalinowsky and Hoch, 1952). Neither depressive nor schizophrenic syndromes are infrequent in pregnancy and the question must therefore be posed in some of these complications whether electroplexy is justified; whether it can be used safely either alone or with relaxants; and what, if any, deleterious effects may be imposed on the mother and/or foetus.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1956 

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

Boyd, D. A. H., and Brown, de W. W., J. Missouri M.A., 1948, 45, 573.Google Scholar
Burnett, C. W. F., J. Obstet. Gynaec. Brit. Emp., 1946, 53, 539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brinkman, R., in Delefresnaye, J. F., and Oppe, T. E. (Ed.), Anoxia of the new-born infant, 1953, pp. 125, 219. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Charatan, F. B., and Oldham, A. J., J. Obstet. Gynaec. Brit. Emp., 1954, 61, 665.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clemesen, C., Ztschr. f. d. ges. Neurol. and Psychiat., 1927, 110, 793.Google Scholar
Diethelm, O., Treatment in Psychiatry, 1950, p. 152. Springfield: Thomas.Google Scholar
Forssman, H., Acta Psychiat. et Neurol. Scandinav., 1955, 39, 436.Google Scholar
Goldstein, H. H., Weinberg, J., and Sankstone, M. I., Amer. J. Psychiat., 1941, 98, 201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ingalls, T. H., Curley, F. J., and Prindle, A. A., Amer. J. Dis. Child., 1950, 80, 34.Google Scholar
Kalinowsky, L. B., and Hoch, P. H., Shock Treatments and Psychosurgery, 1952. New York: Grune and Stratton.Google Scholar
Laird, D. M., New England J. Med., 1955, 252, 934.Google Scholar
Mayer-Gross, W., Slater, E., and Roth, M., Clinical Psychiatry, 1954. London: Cassell & Co.Google Scholar
McCowan, P. K., J. ment. Sci., Jan. 1952, 7.Google Scholar
Noyes, A. P., Modern Clinical Psychiatry, 1953. 4th Edit. Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders.Google Scholar
Polatin, P., and Hoch, P., New York State J. Med., 1945, 45, 1562.Google Scholar
Russell, R. J., and Page, L. G. M., Letter to B.M.J., 7 May, 1955, p. 1157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sargent, W., and Slater, E., Physical Methods of Treatment in Psychiatry, 1954. Edinburgh and London: E. & S. Livingstone.Google Scholar
Thorpe, F. T., Brit. Med. J., 1942, ii, 281.Google Scholar
Wickes, I. G., Brit. Med. J., 1954, ii, 1029.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yamamoto, J., Hammes, E. M., and Hammes, E. M. Jnr, Minnesota Med., 1953, 36, 1260: abstracted J.A.M.A., 194, 1132.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.