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A Comparison of the Effects on Depression and Memory of Bilateral E.C.T. and Unilateral E.C.T. to the Dominant and Non-Dominant Hemispheres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

A. M. Halliday
Affiliation:
National Hospital, Queen Square, London. Member of the External Staff of the Medical Research Council
K. Davison
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Newcastle upon Tyne. National Hospital, Queen Square, London
M. W. Browne
Affiliation:
Brookwood Hospital, Woking, Surrey. Netherne Hospital
L. C. Kreeger
Affiliation:
Halliwick Hospital, London. Westminster and Netherne Hospitals

Extract

Four years after E.C.T. was first introduced by Cerletti and Bini (1938), Friedman and Wilcox (1942) investigated the effect of unilateral E.C.T. in eleven psychotic patients, using a pair of electrodes on the vertex and on the left temple above the ear (or, in one case, the left frontal region). Since that time there have been a number of published reports of the effect of administering E.C.T. unilaterally, using a variety of electrode placements and shock parameters, some limited to the supposedly non-dominant right side of the head (Goldman, 1949; Lancaster, Steinert and Frost, 1958; Cannicott, 1962; Bilikiewicz and Krzyzowski, 1964; Dolenz, 1964; Martin, Ford, McDanald and Towler, 1965; Impastato and Karliner, 1966; Cannicott and Waggoner, 1967), others comparing right- and left-sided treatment (Blaurock, Lorimer, Segal and Gibbs, 1950; Pacella and Impastato, 1954; Zamora and Kaelbling, 1965; Gottlieb and Wilson, 1965).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1968 

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