A comparison of desoxyephedrine (methedrine), and electroshock in the treatment of depression.

EARLY in 1950 we treated 34 depressed patients with desoxyephedrine, in an attempt to discover whether it is comparable in efficiency to electroshock in the treatment of depression in a substantial proportion of cases. We origin ally intended to treat approximately 100 consecutive depressed patients admitted to hospital, and to compare the results with those obtained in the previous 200 consecutive depressions treated by electroshock. The results, however, caused us to stop the experiment at a much earlier stage. Rudolf (i@@ç@) found that the results from electroshock and desoxyephedrine were similar, and added †̃¿ †̃¿ If an equally effective and safe alternative to the severe and often uncomfortable E.C.T. could be found, the advantage to the patient would be obvious.' †̃¿ It is worth stating that we started this enquiry in the hope that desoxyephedrine would provide just such an alterna tive. We also had in mind the possibility that desoxyephedrine might enable a proportion of patients to be treated with a smaller deployment of trained psychiatric workers than are required for electroshock.