Electroconvulsive Therapy: A Programmed Text, 2nd ed.

Renewed interest in ECT encouraged these authors to reissue their manual for students first written in 1985. They use a learning program format, and their instructions on the technical features of modern treatment are easily understood. The electrical characteristics of the stimulus, selection of electrode placement, energy dosing, motor and EEG seizure monitoring, seizure management, and a step-by-step outline of ECT administration are described in detail. Each chapter is followed by questions (the answers are given in an appendix).

The text provides a basic core of practical information that physicians should know in administering ECT safely and effectively. Where opinions are presented without references, they are the opinions of the authors. The methods presented are those of Dr. Richard Weiner, as developed at Duke University. Dr. Weiner has been the chairman of various APA ECT task forces since 1978.

The book is a well-written guide for psychiatric residents who are asked to administer ECT, a useful replacement for the time-worn adage of “see one, do one, teach one,” a teaching standard in earlier decades.

The same publishers issued the Handbook of ECT, edited by Charles Kellner and his associates at the Medical University of South Carolina (1). Both books cover the same ground. The Kellner text is simpler and smaller (easy to keep in a coat pocket), is not burdened by the learning program format, and has a greater emphasis on drug-ECT interactions. The text under review provides more examples of the characteristics of the seizures in EEG and ECG records and algorithms for defining seizure adequacy.

Neither book presents much information on the all-important question of who is to be treated in view of the broadened applications described in the past decade or when a course of ECT is to be considered in the treatment of patients. For the student and the ECT practitioner seeking practical answers to clinical questions, and for detailed citations, the third edition of the textbook Electroconvulsive Therapy by Richard Abrams (2) is the established standard.