Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) – brief history and guidelines

Abstract

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is one of the most effective and safe methods of treatment used in psychiatry. The history of ECT in Poland dates back to 1861, when Vilnius doctor Klemens Maleszewski successfully applied electricity obtained from a galvanic cell to treat a patient with catatonia. The modern history of the use of electricity to induce seizures dates back to 1938, when Bini and Cerletti performed the first ECT on a patient suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Although ECT is thought to be a very safe, well-known and effective procedure, patients are still afraid of undergoing ECT due to bad reputation of this method.