Department of Psychiatry

RESEARCH FINDINGS

In the US the 1999 Surgeon General's report on mental health summarized psychiatric opinion at the time about the effectiveness of ECT. It stated that both clinical experience and controlled trials had determined ECT to be effective (with an average 60 to 70 percent remission rate) in the treatment of severe depression, some acute psychotic states, and mania. The report stated that ECT should be regarded as a short-term treatment for an acute episode of illness, to be followed by continuation therapy in the form of drug treatment or further ECT at weekly to monthly intervals.