Consensus Conference on ECT

At the June 1985 Consensus Conference on ECT, critics and advocates of ECT debated the issue of efficacy. The advocates were unable to come forth with a single study showing that ECT had a positive effect beyond 4 weeks. Many studies showed no effect, and in the positive studies, the improvements were not dramatic. That the treatment had no positive effect after 4 weeks confirmed the brain-disabling principle since 4 weeks is the approximate time for recovery from the most mind-numbing effects of the ECT-induced acute organic brain syndrome or delirium. 

Squire and Slater s (1983) study, also omitted by the APA (1990b) task force, found that 7 months after treatment, patients reported an average loss of memory spanning 27 months. Squire, in a personal communication to me at the June 1985 Consensus Conference on ECT, explained that one patient lost the recollection of 10 years of her life. He told me that he felt it was not necessary to report this in his actual publication. 

The 1978 APA task force report labeled electroshock treatment as controversial. The 1985 Consensus Conference on ECT report stated,... 

Consensus Conference on ECT. (1985). Journal of the American Medical Association, 245, 2103-2108. 

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