A preliminary magnetic resonance imaging study of ECT-treated depressed patients.

Until the introduction of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), all in vivo human studies, except for a single ca~ report (Menken et al. 1979), of the potential effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on brain structure had been retrospective comparisons of patients (with and without a history of prior ECT) who had had computerized tomographic scans. An association between prior ECT and lateral ventricular enlargement in schizophrenics (Weinberger et al. 1979) and cortical atrophy in elderly depressives (Calloway et al. 198!) was reported. Kolbeinsson et al. (1986) found that depressed patients had larger ventricle/brain ratios and greater cortical atrophy than normal controls but there was no association with prior ECT. The fast prospective study to use serial MRI brain scans (Coffey et al. 1988b) found no ECTrelated structural brain changes in 10 patients, although a number of brain abnormalities were noted even at the pre-ECT scan. Similarly, Price et al. (1988) found no MRI scan changes with