Evaluation of Electric Convulsion Therapy As Compared with Conservative Methods of Treatment in Depressive States

Extract

In an article under the above title (J. Ment. Sci., 1950, 96, 1060-91) S. Karagulla compared the results obtained in six groups of patients. Two groups, male and female, had been treated at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Mental and Nervous Disorders in the years 1900-39, before electric convulsion therapy had come into general use. The remaining four groups had been treated in the years 1940-48, two, male and female, by electric convulsion therapy, and two, male and female, by conservative measures only. The author had the advice and encouragement of Professor Sir David Henderson, and the final statistical calculations were scrutinized by Professor A. C. Aitken. This background of authoritative support is mentioned here, because some readers may have felt that it lent to the author's arguments and conclusions an added weight.