Am J Psychiatry 1981; 138:1177-1181
Copyright © 1981 by American Psychiatric Association
Memory and convulsive stimulation: effects of stimulus waveform
CW Spanis and LR Squire
Electrical stimulation with brief pulses can produce a seizure requiring
less energy than conventional sine-wave stimulation, and it has been
suggested that brief-pulse stimulation might reduce the memory loss
associated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The authors evaluated the
effects of electroconvulsive shock (ECS) on memory in mice by using various
waveforms, current intensities, training-ECS intervals, pulse widths, and
stimulus durations. When equated for ability to produce seizures,
low-energy, brief-pulse stimulation caused as much amnesia as sine-wave
stimulation and sometimes more. In the absence of comparisons of the
amnesic effects of brief-pulse and sine- wave stimulation in humans, the
use of brief pulses for administering ECT is unwarranted.
