Brief Report: Decline in the Use of ECT: The York Study

Kumud Bhatnagar,Stephen Morley,Peter Kennedy

doi:10.1192/s0140078900017831

Abstract

A national survey in 1980 drew attention to the wide variation in frequency with which electro-convulsive treatment was being used. Yorkshire Region was at the top of the league with three times the level of the Oxford Region which had the lowest rate. Since then a good deal more research has been published on the effectiveness and limitations of ECT.1–3 Other factors which might have influenced clinicians in their prescribing of this treatment include much stricter conditions in the 1983 Mental Health Act for giving ECT compulsorily, plenty of media comment which may have reduced its acceptability, the increasing confidence of general practitioners in prescribing antidepressant drug therapies, and the greater emphasis on community care.

Highlights

A national survey in 1980 drew attention to the wide variation in frequency with which electro-convulsive treat ment was being used
We report a substantial reduction of ECT in York District during the period from 1980 to 1984, and some of the reasons for it, with parallel information obtained from the Department of Health on ECT trends in the Yorkshire Region and England as a whole
York seems to have been outstripped by other Districts in the Yorkshire Region in reducing the numbers of treatments though not the number of courses of treat ment

Summary

The York Study

KUMUDBHATNAGASRe,nior Registrar in Psychiatry, High Royds Hospital, Menston, Ilkley; PETERKENNEDYC,onsultant Psychiatrist, Bootham Park Hospital, York; and STEPHENMORLEYL, ecturer in Clinical Psychology, University of Leeds. ' "3 Other factors which might have influenced clinicians in their prescribing of this treatment include much stricter conditions in the 1983Mental Health Act for giving ECT compulsorily, plenty of media comment which may have reduced its acceptability, the increasing confidence of general practitioners in prescribing antidepressant drug therapies, and the greater emphasis on community care. We report a substantial reduction of ECT in York District during the period from 1980 to 1984, and some of the reasons for it, with parallel information obtained from the Department of Health on ECT trends in the Yorkshire Region and England as a whole. DHSS data on numbers of courses and treatments given depend on returns of SBH 112. York seems to have been outstripped by other Districts in the Yorkshire Region in reducing the numbers of treatments though not the number of courses of treat ment. Though the decline is greater, Yorkshire remains above the national average

Methods and results

The Child Psychotherapy Trust

Findings

Dance and Movement Therapy