Long‐term effects of electroconvulsive therapy upon memory and perceptual‐motor performance

The Bender-tests that reflec' systems. The Pa Gestalt designs 1 the number o scores" that COflE card. The ii p C .005 for error scores, and As indicated for the ECT grou Benton error sco t 1.90, p C ECT group and 3 For the ECT and Bender-Gest Benton error scor' correct score-.4 The groups v investigators mail important in this years of hospitali: were .28 for Beni Benton number c were .04, .27, and The significai Bender-Gestalt at course of treatmei more, it seems pla damaging effect of between number c ECT-produced str observation of pr treated'". Nevertheless, permanent brain ç to receive ECT ar it has been report orders tend to do lutely positive tha ECT psychopatbol & PROBLEM This study investigated whether there are memory and perceptual-motor deficits in patients who have had in excess of 50 electroconvulsive treatments ECT. A number of investigators have explored the effects of ECT upon psy chological tests sensitive to organicity. These researchers usually found decreased performance during and shortly after a course of ECT2 3. 6, 7. 8. 10 There appear to be only two investigations that determined the cognitive effects of ECT after a number of months'6. However, in both of these studies neither control patients nor an adequate number of ECT patients were employed. In the report of Pascal and Zeaman'61, a patient's Wechsler-Bellevue and Rorschach scores before 10 ECT and 7 months afterward were comparable. Stonet91 reported that a patient's Henmon-Nelson Test of Mental Ability score 60 days after the last of 20 ECT was comparable to her score of 7 years earlier. An appropriate generalization is that the evidence as to whether ECT causes permanent cognitive impairment is inconclusive. The studies reported in the literature have not been controlled adequately for the assessment of such impair ment. Furthermore, the number of ECT have been far fewer than in the present research. i IETHOD Ss were 40 male chronic schizophrenic patients in Jefferson Barracks Veterans Administration Hospital. Twenty patients with a history of 50 or more ECT were assigned to the ECT group, and 20 patients with no record of ECT were matched with individual ECT Ss for age within 5 years, race, and level of education within 2 years, and were assigned to the control group. Four Ss were eliminated from the ECT group two refused to participate and two produced no seorable test responses, and …