Effect of electroconvulsive therapy on erythrocyte adenosine triphosphatase activity in depressive illness.

Erythrocyte membrane adenosine triphosphatase activities were examined in twelve unipolar depressed patients receiving ECT. Eleven patients undergoing diagnostic cystoscopy served as controls for the acute effects of anaesthesia, and sixteen healthy subjects served as non-depressed controls. The unipolar depressed patients had a slight reduction in their (Na+ + K+)-ATPase activity but effective ECT treatment was not associated with any increase in this activity. This approach is unlikely to cast further light on the membrane phenomenology of depressive illness.