Memory impairment after convulsive therapy. Influence of age and number of treatments.

The influence of age and number of treatments on memory impairment was studied in depressed patients after a series of convulsive treatments: bilateral ECT, unilateral ECT on the nondominant hemisphere, and fluorothyl convulsive therapy. Before and after the completed convulsive therapy course the patients were tested with a memory test battery and the symptoms rated with a depression scale. Before treatment older age-groups had decreased ability to learn, but their post-treatment forgetting score was not significantly higher than in other age-groups. An increase in the number of ECTs did not seem to correlate with the degree of memory impairment. The conclusion of the present study is that age (up to 65) and the number of ECTs (up to 10) have no apparent influence on memory impairment after electroconvulsive therapy.