Three Decades of Quality Improvement in Electroconvulsive Therapy

Abstract

Although improvements in ECT delivery have coincided with the accreditation service, other factors may have also contributed.

The Impact of Accreditation for 10 Years on Inpatient Units for Adults of Working Age in the United Kingdom

“…Here standards of practice improved over a 10-year period following the introduction of accreditation. Accreditation for ECT was introduced after two decades in which audit without accreditation failed to show any improvements in the delivery of ECT (7). There is one important caveat though: it is not possible to attribute changes in inpatient care as having been directly caused by the accreditation process, given that other factors are likely to have been involved in driving up quality-for example, care quality commission inspections and other quality improvement projects.…”

Recent advances in electroconvulsive therapy and physical treatments for depression

“…A small number of patients complained of complete loss of subjective memory, emphasising the importance of monitoring of all patients (Brus 2017). The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) (2003) recommends that cognitive function should be monitored during a course of treatment, and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) have been evaluated for this. In a study of 109 older (aged over 55 years) patients receiving ECT for depression, there was an improvement in MMSE score, which was maintained over the 6-month follow-up (Obbels 2019).…”