From the Editor
It’s a powerful tool that helps people with refractory depression and other illnesses.
It’s a treatment that carries a heavy stigma, and is used less today than even a decade ago.
Both statements describe electroconvulsive therapy (or ECT) – perhaps the most controversial intervention in psychiatry. And while it has been studied for decades, little work has been done considering the impact of ECT on inpatient readmissions. In this week’s Reading, we look at a new JAMA Psychiatry paper that studies ECT and readmissions.
Spoiler alert: the study authors found it decreased readmits.
Electroconvulsive therapy at Winwick Hospital in 1957: relevant then as now?
The paper begs a larger question: is an important tool in the treatment of those with mental illness being underutilized as newer (and less effective) treatments are chosen?
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