ReviewHarvard review of psychiatry
Electroconvulsive Therapy: Mechanisms of Action, Clinical Considerations, and Future Directions.
Review in Harvard review of psychiatry. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Maintenance of Noninvasive Brain Stimulation for Preventing Relapse in Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Alpha psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Effect of quantitative consciousness index on seizure parameters during electroconvulsive therapy in patients with major depressive disorder.World journal of psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Clinical Outcomes and Treatment Characteristics of Seizure Threshold-Titrated Electroconvulsive Therapy in Depressive Disorder: A 3.5-Year Retrospective Naturalistic Course-Level Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Development and implementation of a new electroconvulsive therapy service line at a major medical center.BMC anesthesiology · 2026Article
- Reduced striatal dopamine transmission as a transdiagnostic substrate of psychomotor retardation.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2026Review
- Electroconvulsive therapy and autobiographical memory.Psychiatry, psychology, and law : an interdisciplinary journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law · 2026Article
- Modified electroconvulsive therapy for treatment-resistant self-injurious behavior in autism spectrum disorder with severe intellectual disability: a case report.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Opinion: On the reasons for underutilization of ECT in individuals with intellectual and developmental disability.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Remimazolam versus propofol on seizure adequacy in electroconvulsive therapy: a retrospective cohort study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Physical Therapy for Treatment-Resistant Depression A Comprehensive Review of Efficacy, Safety, and Evidence Grading.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2026Review
- Electroconvulsive Therapy for the Treatment of Protracted Resistant Agitated Psychosis With Comorbid Delirium in the Intensive Care Unit: A Case Report.Case reports in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Understanding Psychotic Depression.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Electroconvulsive therapy-induced motor seizure length trajectories and their association with clinical remission: a retrospective cohort study across diagnoses.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Computational Models of High-Definition Electroconvulsive Therapy for Focal or Multitargeting Treatment.The journal of ECT · 2025Article
- The use of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as a potential marker of the efficacy and safety of electroconvulsive therapy.Postepy psychiatrii neurologii · 2025Review
- Electroconvulsive Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review.Cureus · 2025Review
- Comparison of High-Charge Protocol vs. Dose Titration Protocol in Bilateral ECT: Evaluation of Antidepressant Effectiveness and EEG Parameters.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- How to Improve Cognitive Flexibility: Evidence From Noninvasive Neuromodulation Techniques.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2025Review
- Article
- Neurobiological Mechanisms of Electroconvulsive Therapy: Molecular Perspectives of Brain Stimulation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
LEARNING
objectives• Outline and discuss the fundamental physiologic, cellular, and molecular mechanisms of ECT to devise strategies to optimize therapeutic outcomes• Summarize the overview of ECT, its efficacy in treating depression, the known effects on cognition, evidence of mechanisms, and future directions. ABSTRACT: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most effective treatment for a variety of psychiatric illnesses, including treatment-resistant depression, bipolar depression, mania, catatonia, and clozapine-resistant schizophrenia. ECT is a medical and psychiatric procedure whereby electrical current is delivered to the brain under general anesthesia to induce a generalized seizure. ECT has evolved a great deal since the 1930s. Though it has been optimized for safety and to reduce adverse effects on cognition, issues persist. There is a need to understand fundamental physiologic, cellular, and molecular mechanisms of ECT to devise strategies to optimize therapeutic outcomes. Clinical trials that set out to adjust parameters, electrode placement, adjunctive medications, and patient selection are critical steps towards the goal of improving outcomes with ECT. This narrative review provides an overview of ECT, its efficacy in treating depression, its known effects on cognition, evidence of its mechanisms, and future directions.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.