Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 7, 2026
Electroconvulsive Seizures in Rats and Fractionation of Their Hippocampi to Examine Seizure-induced Changes in Postsynaptic Density Proteins
Published on: August 15, 2017
Electroconvulsive therapy: predictors and trends in utilization from 1976 to 2000
Trine Munk-Olsen1, Thomas Munk Laursen, Poul Videbech
1National Centre for Register-based Research, University of Aarhus, Taasingegade 1, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. tmo@ncrr.dk
Background:
Use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) may have changed during the last decades due to advances in psychopharmacology and organizational changes of psychiatric care.
Objectives:
To identify predictors for receiving ECT for the first time and to describe temporal trends in ECT utilization.
Methods:
A register-based case-control study. The sample included 2010 cases treated with ECT between 1976 and 2000 and 148,284 controls.
Results:
Predictors for receiving first ECT were unipolar affective disorders, long admissions, and no previous admissions. Significantly fewer patients with bipolar and schizoaffective disorders received the treatment in 2000 compared with 1976.
Conclusions:
Unipolar affective disorders, long duration of admissions, and no history of previous admissions are strong predictors of receiving first ECT. Despite a decrease in available inpatient beds, the treatment is used in 5.5% of admissions, and during the last 15 years of the study period, ECT utilization has been remarkably stable.
Related Concept Videos
01:30Electroconvulsive Therapy
01:30Psychosurgery
Historical Development of Psychosurgery
In the 1930s, Portuguese neurologist Antonio Egas Moniz introduced a surgical procedure designed...
01:24Epilepsy and Seizures: Overview
Various factors can trigger epilepsy, including genetic factors, brain damage, metabolic causes, and unknown etiology. Diagnosis of epilepsy involves electroencephalography (EEG), which...