[Some electroencephalographic findings following bilateral and unilateral electroconvulsive treatment]

Soon after Cerletti had introduced electroconvulsive treatment into psychiatric therapy in 1938, electroencephalographic examinations were made during and after ECT. Based on the majority of the results gained it was supposed that intensity and persistence of EEG changes after electroconvulsive shocks depend on number and frequency of single shocks. However, our investigations on 49 patients of the Psychiatric Clinic of Karl-Marx-University, Leipzig, show that intensity and persistence of post-therapeutic EEG deviations after ECT reveal no statistically significant correlation with number and frequency of electroconvulsive shocks used. Unilateral accentuations occurred exclusively after unilateral treatment (alone or combined with bilateral technique) among our subjects.