New guidance on ECT looks set to curb its use

New guidance for England and Wales on the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) threatens to exclude many people who might benefit from it and to pose difficulties for clinicians, claim specialist psychiatrists.

The guidance, which was issued last week by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), restricts the use of ECT to the rapid and short term relief of severe depressive or manic symptoms and catatonia after all other treatment options have failed and suicide is a risk.

But the Royal College of Psychiatrists' special committee on ECT, supported by the Scottish ECT …