Effects of changes in practice of electroconvulsive therapy over a 2 year period

The administration and outcome of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) were studied retrospectively over two successive periods of 12 months, before and after replacement of our Ectron Series 5 ECT machine by a Thymatron DGx. It was found that using the Thymatron enabled the same outcome of ECT to be achieved, while administering significantly fewer treatments per patient. Possible explanations for this finding are discussed.