Abstract

J Psychiatry/39:7,training,1 in 4 ofElectroconvulsive Treatment in Pippard and L. Ellam. London, pp. $20.00 (paper). Electroconvulsive Therapy: An L. Palmer. New York, Oxford pp. $45.00., ,Great Headley Appraisal, UniversityBritain, 1980, by J. Brothers, 198/ /62the doctors had received some until he had begun administeringconsistent policy to guide thetraining in ECT, often not it. There was rarely atherapists if the first stimulusedited by Robertto elicita seizure.Drs.1981,observations of missed seizures that were ness of the therapists, and, even when directly questioned, they found therapistsout of the awarethe matter was who could notcriteria derivedjudge In its 50-year history, convulsive therapy has been a center of medical and social controversy. Questions of efficacy, safety, toxicity, and mode ofaction have often been submerged by questions of personality alteration, prolonged brain damage, abuse, and consent. These concerns came to a head in the early 1970s in both the United States and Great Britain with public demands to limit the use of ECT. The British responses were a memorandum by the Royal College of Psychiatrists (1) giving guidelines for the use of ECT; studies examining the need for seizures for a favorable treatment response and the attitudes of patients to their principal concern, that of