Madam, – In her report on a recent study of the side-effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), Claire O’Connell (HEALTHplus, August 24th) mentions that this study did not look at the phenomenon of retrograde amnesia, the loss of previously stored memories. While difficult to measure with standardised tests, this is the single most important problem reported by recipients of this treatment.
In a UK government-sponsored review of consumers’ views on ECT, a team from the Institute of Psychiatry wrote in 2002: “It is evident that memory loss is a persistent side-effect for at least a third of recipients of ECT. For some, this memory loss profoundly affects their lives and sense of self”.
Permanent amnesia is now recognised in the scientific literature as a common side-effect after treatment and it is recommended that psychiatrists should warn their patients that this amnesia has been known to extend to 10-20 years. This recent study offers no new information about retrograde amnesia and so can offer no reassurance to patients or their doctors on this score.
What this study does confirm is that ECT recipients can expect to suffer other forms of cognitive impairment for up to two weeks after their course of treatment.
Given that relapse rates after ECT are extremely high (one New York study suggested that, on average, 10 days after ECT, patients had lost 40 per cent of the improvement they had gained), this study really only serves to underscore the controversial nature of this treatment. – Yours, etc,