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The Clinical Use of Electroconvulsive Therapy in Old Age
Author(s) -
KARLINSKY HARRY,
SHULMAN KENNETH I.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1984.tb01999.x
Subject(s) - electroconvulsive therapy , medicine , geriatric psychiatry , retrospective cohort study , psychiatry , pediatrics , surgery , schizophrenia (object oriented programming)
A retrospective review was conducted on the charts of 33 elderly inpatients (age range, 62–85 years) who received electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in a geriatric psychiatry unit of a general hospital. Electroconvulsive therapy was found to be safe but not uniformly effective; only 42.4 per cent of patients obtained an immediate good outcome. The implications of these findings for further evaluations of the indications and efficacy of ECT in old age are discussed.