Auditing Electroconvulsive Therapy

Abstract

The first audit in medicine was reported in 1980 on the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for mental disorders in the United Kingdom. John Read and colleagues have recently conducted an update auditing the extent to which patients are informed of treatment hazards. Their report also audits the response of British health services to being audited about ECT. The response from services was poor on both the details given to patients and the extent to which services responded to questions from the audit team. This review questions how likely it was that Read and colleagues would get a response and given the heterogeneity of patients given ECT whether any response was likely to be meaningful.