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The effects of unilateral and bilateral ECT on verbal and visual spatial memory
Author(s) -
Jackson Basil
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(197801)34:1<4::aid-jclp2270340102>3.0.co;2-3
Subject(s) - psychology , audiology , verbal memory , visual memory , memory impairment , wechsler adult intelligence scale , wechsler memory scale , memory test , verbal learning , developmental psychology , cognition , psychiatry , medicine
Investigated the effects of unilateral left (UL), unilateral right (UR), and bilateral (B) ECT on the performance of right‐handed male patients on the Wechsler Memory Scale and two tests of the Williams battery, which provided eight independent measures of verbal memory and two of visual‐spatial memory. Patients were tested three times: (1) within I week prior to ECT;(2) within 30 minutes after the sixth ECT; (3) 10 days after the sixth ECT. Double blind procedures were maintained carefully. Results showed a significant loss on second testing followed by a significant improvement 10 days later for all ECT groups compared with matched controls. There was some tendency for the UR group to show the least impairment on verbal measures and the UL group to show the least impairment on visual‐spatial memory test of the WMS, but most of the differences between UL and UR groups and between each of these and the B group were not significant. The most sensitive test in differentiating among the ECT groups was the brief Verbal Learning subtest of the Williams battery.