A Prospective Follow-Up Study of Cognitive Functions After Electroconvulsive Therapy

The authors studied primarily nonmemory cognitive functioning in a sample of 13 melancholic patients tested prior to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and at various intervals during a 1-2 year post-ECT follow-up period. Compared with 13 age-matched normal controls, the patients performed significantly worse at baseline and immediately after the sixth ECT, but were not significantly different at the 30-day, 6-month, and 1-2 year assessments. At 1-2 years post-ECT, cognitive impairment among patients was substantially and significantly less than observed pre-ECT.