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June 1947

ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC STUDIES FOLLOWING ELECTRIC SHOCK THERAPY: Observations on Fifty-One Patients Treated with Unidirectional Current

Author Affiliations

CLEVELAND; Clinical Director and Assistant Superintendent, New Hampshire State Hospital CONCORD, N. H.

From the New Hampshire State Hospital, Concord, New Hampshire.; Now at the Neuropsychiatric Institute of Cleveland; formerly Director of Clinical Research, New Hampshire State Hospital.

Arch NeurPsych. 1947;57(6):719-729. doi:10.1001/archneurpsyc.1947.02300290079005
Abstract

ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC studies following electric shock treatment have been described by several authors (Levy, Serota and Grinker1; Hughes, Wigton and Jardon2; Pacella and Barrera3; Fleming, Golla and Walter,4 and Bagchi, Howell and Schmale5). It is fairly well agreed by all these authors that electroencephalographic tracings after electric shock treatment show a definite resemblance to epileptiform wave patterns (Kalinowsky and Hoch6). All these brain waves tracings were obtained after administration of alternating current. The only previous observation on unidirectional, fluctuating current as administered by the Reiter apparatus (Friedman and Wilcox7; Friedman8) was reported by Proctor and Goodwin.9 They found a significant increase in the occurrence of cortical slow wave formations in the subjects receiving alternating current as compared with the subjects receving unidirectional, fluctuating curent.

We have tried to elaborate on their observations in this study, utilizing only unidirectional, fluctuating current. Since most

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