Diminution of Anterograde Amnesia Following Electroconvulsive Therapy

¹ Assistant Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of California, San Diego and Clinical Investigator, Veterans Administration Hospital, San Diego, California 92161
² Research Assistant, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego

Psychiatric patients receiving a series of bilateral electro-convulsive therapy for relief of depressive illness were given learning tests after each of their first four ECT treatments. Learning sessions took place 20 minutes, 50 minutes and 180 minutes after each treatment, and different material was learnt at each session. Recognition of the learnt material was assessed at 30 minutes and about 24 hours after each learning session. The results indicate that: (1) the ability to retain newly learnt material was initially impaired and then improved during the hours after each ECT treatment; (2) the ability to retain material for a 30-minute interval was impaired to about the same extent and improved at about the same rate after each of the first four ECT treatments; and (3) the ability to retain material for a 24-hour interval was significantly poorer and improved more slowly after the fourth ECT treatment than after the first ECT treatment. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that forgetting of material learned after ECT is abnormally rapid because the ability to store information is impaired. The results also demonstrate the usefulness of long-delay retention tests for asssessment of ECT-produced memory impairment.

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				L. R. Squire and P. M. Chace Memory Functions Six to Nine Months After Electroconvulsive Therapy Arch Gen Psychiatry, December 1, 1975; 32(12): 1557 - 1564. [Abstract] [PDF]