Treatment of acute schizophrenia: the place of ECT.

Many general psychiatrists, on the basis of long clinical experience, use electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as an important treatment modality in acute schizophrenic disorders. They believe its use, along with phenothiazine drugs and supportive psychotherapy, produces a superior remission in a shorter time in many instances. The charts of one hundred consecutive first hospital admission schizophrenics at Glenside Hospital were reviewed regarding treatment modalty, length of stay, and outcome, as part of a utilization review study. The average hospital stay was thirty-one days. Eighty-eight per cent were discharged home improved. Fifty-six per cent received ECT.