Issues in the Assessment of Post-ECT Memory Changes
LILY BRUNSCHWIG Ph.D.1,
JAMES J. STRAIN M.D.2, and
THOMAS GEORGE BIDDER M.D.3
1 Associate Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, The Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennyslvania 19129
2 Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Montefiore Hospital Centre, Division of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, New York
3 Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
Except for the performance of the deviant 12 ECT group, memory changes during and after ECT on PA and on the PDS showed similar patterns of loss during treatment and of post-treatment gains. Benton scores were not significantly changed with treatment but showed improvement after remission. Patients with no post-treatment memory deficits had a higher relapse rate during the year than the rest of the sample. Amounts of memory change, as documented on any one of the three tests, had limited comparability with results from either of the other two tests. An objective measure devised to sample post-treatment retention of personal information showed more impairment and a slower recovery rate than the two tests of anterograde amnesia which involved artificial types of learning.
Submitted on May 27, 1970
