§ Sir David Priceasked the Secretary of State for Social Services to what extent electroconvulsive therapy is still used within the National Health Service for the treatment of depressive illness and manic-depressive psychosis; and what advice his Department is giving to health authorities as to the clinical circumstances under which electroconvulsive therapy should be given to patients in preference to anti-depressant drugs.
§ Mr. WhitneyThe numbers of courses of treatment given annually from 1979–84 are given in the table. National Health Service statistics do not show the diagnosis of the patients for whom it was prescribed. The Department does not give advice on the types of treatment to give to patients; National Health Service doctors will be aware of a number of recently published research studies. These bear on the question of for which patients electroconvulsive therapy is likely to be the treatment of choice.394W
Courses of electroconvulsive therapy—England Number 1980 25,441 1981 24,407 1982 22,578 1983 21,350 1984 19,850