By Stephen J. Seiner, MD, and Terry A. Bragg, MSLS, MA

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is used to treat patients with certain types of mental illness, including severe depression , severe mania, and catatonia. It was first developed in the late 1930s, with the first recorded treatments at McLean Hospital taking place in 1941.

A few years prior to the advent of ECT, many hospitals, including McLean, used chemically induced seizures as a method to treat patients with severe mental illness. Insulin therapy and metrazol therapy were both started at McLean in 1938, but discontinued in 1941although such therapies continued for many more years at some other hospitals. McLean doctors at the time determined that ECT was a more precise and less risky treatment .

Chemical seizure therapy required the injection of potentially toxic substances into the body, and the experience was very unpleasant for patients. Because of uncertainty about proper dosing, the patient had to wait for the seizure to come on as the chemical treatment was slowly administered, making the procedure very anxiety provoking.

ECT, on the other hand, produced an instantaneous and reliable seizure. Patients also had no recollection of the seizure, and they therefore had less fear about the procedure after it was completed.