The use of ECT in the treatment of schizophrenia

Abstract

ECT [electroconvulsive therapy] has been replaced by neuroleptics for the treatment of [human] schizophrenia. The production of serious drug-related side effects, particularly tardive dyskinesia, raises the question of the efficacy and toxicity of ECT vs. neuroleptics. Most of the studies in the English literature on the use of ECT in the treatment of schizophrenia are unacceptable according to contemporary criteria; the question of ECT vs. neuroleptic drugs thus remains unanswered. In the few acceptable published studies, clinical response to ECT was inversely proportional to duration of schizophrenic symptoms. Schizophrenic patients with affective and catatonic symptoms responded best; those with chronic symptoms rarely responded. ECT does not alter the fundamental psychopathology of schizophrenia.