Several existing ECT dosing methods have been demonstrated to be clinically very effective--these include the fixed high-dose, age-based, and half-age methods (Abrams, 2002). However, no satisfactory method exists for titrating stimulus dose against a measure that is known to vary with treatment response (e.g., EEG postictal suppression), and this seminal article by Dr. Conrad Swartz presents an entirely new approach to ECT dosing that uses the patient's own response to the first ECT as arguably the most valid guide to subsequent dose adjustment.
