Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T02:30:13.736Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unilateral Electroconvulsive Therapy: Its Effects on Memory and its Therapeutic Efficacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Sheila Zinkin  and
John Birtchnell
Sheila Zinkin
Affiliation:
Institute of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford
John Birtchnell
Affiliation:
M.R.C. Clinic Research Fellow, Department of Mental Health, University of Aberdeen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It is by now widely recognized that patients undergoing a course of electroconvulsive therapy (E.C.T.) may frequently be troubled by some form of memory disturbance. Despite some thirty years of research and speculation on this subject, we are still a long way from understanding the precise nature of these disturbances or their physiological basis. Opinions vary as to their severity and duration and even as to the possible role they may play in the therapeutic process itself. It is, however, generally agreed that a very considerable number of patients complain of memory disturbance during or after a course of E.C.T., and that this may constitute a source of anxiety and distress, if not of practical inconvenience. Treatment is occasionally refused or discontinued on these grounds, and some psychiatrists are reluctant to prescribe E.C.T. in cases where a patient's work might be handicapped by memory impairment. Some degree of disturbance is, however, usually accepted as a calculated risk when prescribing this treatment.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 114 , Issue 513 , August 1968 , pp. 973 - 988
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1968 

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

1. Agle, D. P., Bidder, T. G., Brunschwig, L., Duffy, J. P., Rosenbaum, A. L., Strain, J. J., and Wasman, M. (1965). “Evaluation of unilateral electroconvulsive treatment: a preliminary study” Paper read at the 121st annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, May, 1965, New York, N.Y. Google Scholar
2. Cannicott, S. M. (1962). “Unilateral electroconvulsive therapy” Postgrad. med. J., 38, 451–459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3. Cannicott, S. M. (1963). “The technique of unilateral electroconvulsive therapy” Amer. J. Psychiat., 120, 477–480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4. Cannicott, S. M. and Waggoner, R. W. (1967). “Unilateral and bilateral electroconvulsive therapy” Arch. gen. Psychiat., 16, 229–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5. Cronholm, B., and Molander, L. (1957). “Memory disturbances after electroconvulsive therapy. I. Conditions 6 hours after electroshock treatment” Acta psychiat. Scand., 32, 280–306.Google Scholar
6. Cronholm, B., and Molander, L. (1961). “Memory disturbances after electroconvulsive therapy. IV. Influence of an interpolated electroconvulsive shock on retention of memory material” Ibid., 36, 83–90.Google Scholar
7. Cronholm, B., and Ottosson, J.-O. (1963). “The experience of memory function after electroconvulsive therapy” Brit. J. Psychiat., 109, 251–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8. Glickman, S. E. (1961). “Perseverative neural processes and the consolidation of the memory trace” Psychol. Bull., 58, 218–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9. Lancaster, N. P., Steinert, R. R., and Frost, I. (1958). “Unilateral electro-convulsive therapy” J. ment. Sci., 104, 221–227.Google Scholar
10. Martin, W. L., Ford, H. F., McDanald, E. C., and Towler, M. L. (1965). “Clinical evaluation of unilateral E.S.T” Amer. J. Psychiat., 121, 1087–1090.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11. McGaugh, J. L. (1966). “Time-dependent processes in memory storage” Science, 153, 1351–1358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12. Ottosson, J.-O. (1960). “Experimental studies of memory impairment after electroconvulsive therapy” Acta psychiat. Scand., Suppl. 145, 35, 103–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13. Penfield, W., and Milner, B. (1958). “Memory deficit produced by bilateral lesions in the hippocampal zone” A.M.A. Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 79, 475–497.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14. Scoville, W. B., and Milner, B. (1957). “Loss of recent memory after bilateral hippocampal lesions” J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiat., 20, 11–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15. Zamora, E. N., and Kaelbling, R. (1966). “Memory and electroconvulsive therapy” Amer. J. Psychiat., 122, 546–554.Google Scholar
16. Zung, W. W. K. (1965). “A self-rating depression scale” Arch. gen. Psychiat., 12, 63–70.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.