The Royal College of Psychiatrists' Memorandum on the Use of Electroconvulsive Therapy

Abstract

A Special Committee of the College was appointed in May 1976 after the President had received a request from Dr Porter, the Regional Medical Officer of the SE Thames Regional Health Authority, for the College's advice on the problems of administration of ECT, especially when consent is withheld or given reluctantly. Although the Regional Authority had been concerned earlier with the problem, the situation which prompted further action was the publication in March of the Report of the Inquiry on St Augustine's Hospital, pages 63–71 of which dealt with the administration of ECT and recommended that the College ‘should give urgent consideration to these problems and issue clear guidance’.