The scientific origins of electroconvulsive therapy: a conceptual history

@article{Berrios1997TheSO,  title={The scientific origins of electroconvulsive therapy: a conceptual history},  author={German E. Berrios},  journal={History of Psychiatry},  year={1997},  volume={8},  pages={105 - 119},  url={https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:12121233}}
Writing on the history of biological treatments, particularly identifying origins and end points, is a complex business because there are a host of social and moral factors without which it would be impossible to understand its history.

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66 References

PROGNOSTIC FACTORS IN ELECTRIC CONVULSIVE THERAPY

The present investigation is an attempt to assess statistically the significance of particular features of the history and clinical state in regard to outcome of treatment, and to discover valid guides to immediate prognosis.

A CRITICAL REVIEW

The very considerable technical difficulties involved in the use of camphor have led all but a few workers to abandon it as a convulsant, and Meduna's attention was early directed to the suitability of pentamethylenetetrazol, with which convulsions had been readily produced in animals.

The Clinical Applications of Electrically Induced Convulsions

There is a rather interesting feature of the post-epileptic's behaviour which may prove to give some indication as to the mechanism of the curative action of the fits should it exist.

The Origins of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT).

This paper focuses on the development of ECT by Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini at the Clinic for Nervous and Mental Disorders in Rome in 1938 and the first electroshock treatment with humans.

Old and new information about electroshock.

The idea of inducing convulsions with electric current for therapeutic purposes in man instead of using convulsing drugs was the logical, I might say unavoidable, result of the study of changes in…

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The hypothesis is offered that grouping cases of depression according to their pre-psychotic personality will yield more valuable prognostic criteria than the more usual system of drawing distinction between the involutional cases and the manic and melancholic phases of manic-depressive psychosis.

“CARDIAZOL” CONVULSION THERAPY IN THE PSYCHOSES

Few workers have been able to satisfy von Meduna's estimate of "80% to 90% probability of remissions in casestreated within six monthsof the first manifestation of the disease" and it seemslikely that earlier reports of the results of "Cardiazol" convulsion therapy were unduly optimistic.

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A method for the administration of electrically-induced convulsions has been described, especially with reference to speed and safety, and factors influencing prognosis have been outlined, particularly the question of chronicity.

The Maintenance Treatment of Chronic Psychotics by Electrically Induced Convulsions

Clinical observation shows no appreciable deterioration in personality or intelligence as a result of continued therapy in chronic psychotics treated with electrically induced convulsions repeated at intervals.
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