Should electroconvulsive therapy be used as an ambulatory preventive treatment?

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has often been withheld from patients in many instances, even when it was the preferred form of psychiatric treatment. From clinical, social, and legal points of view, it is associated with many negative connotations. This paper reviews the use of ECT as a "legitimate" form of long-term ambulatory preventive treatment for psychiatric patients who have previously received it during hospitalization. Attempts to terminate or reduce the frequency of ECT treatments may well be the cause for readmission or exacerbation of an acute attack in patients already in remission who have been discharged.