Despite advances in pharmacotherapy, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) remains a mainstay treatment option in psychiatry since its introduction in 1930s. It can be used primarily in severe illnesses when there is an urgent need for treatment or secondarily after failure or intolerance to pharmacotherapy. The 'unmodified' technique of ECT was practised initially, with a high incidence of musculoskeletal complications. Several modifications including general anaesthesia and muscle relaxation are used to increase the safety and patient acceptability of ECT. Various anaesthetic techniques including medications are considered to provide adequate therapeutic seizure, simultaneously controlling seizure-induced haemodynamic changes and side effects. A brief review of literature on choice of these anaesthetic techniques is discussed. This article is intended to reinforce the knowledge of clinicians, who may have limited exposure to ECT procedure. Importance is given to the recent updates on the role of induction agents in potentiating therapeutic response to ECT in psychiatric disorders.

Modern ECT is streamlined by augmentation with drugs, hyperventilation, optimizing anesthesia-ECT time interval, and various stimulus parameters guided by seizure adequacy markers.

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A multitude of psychiatric disorders have been described in classification systems like the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM V). Diagnosing a specific mental disorder requires memorising specific symptom criteria, and their improper recall may result in misdiagnosis. Clinicians may use mnemonics, considering them as narratives or anecdotes of the diagnostic criteria. A scoping review of previously described mnemonics for DSM diagnostic criteria was carried out. An electronic search was done in PubMed, Google Scholar, Google Books and Google Search engine using a prespecified search strategy. Reference lists of relevant articles and chapters were hand searched to identify original and additional articles. Mnemonics retrieved from websites were manually searched in Google to identify published journal articles or chapters for the same mnemonics. Additionally, some mnemonics were developed, modified or added based on the author’s knowledge. The comprehensive search identified 93 records (44 journal articles, 45 books and 4 websites) eligible for the review. Most of the mnemonics retrieved were related in some way to the disorder itself. They were listed under the heading of their respective disorders and indexed in the same order as in DSM V. The mnemonics that reflect a facet of their respective disorders were elaborated in detail.

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