Maintenance ECT: A Survey of Practice (1986)

A questionnaire on the use of maintenance or continuation ECT was mailed to 173 practitioners of ECT. Of 86 respondents, 51 reported they used maintenance therapy, and 35 did not. Users came from 24 states, with five states accounting for more than half. Of practitioners giving maintenance ECT, each treated a median of three patients annually between 1981 through 1984, with a range from zero to "thousands." Frequency of treatments is determined empirically, with most treatments given monthly. Memory impairment is the most commonly cited risk. Depression is the diagnosis in 90% of the patients, with schizoaffective, schizophrenic, and manic patients equally comprising the remainder of the patients. The longest series reported for any one patient is 2,400 treatments.