Fall in free thyroxine after ECT: real effect or an artefact of assay?
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J B Milner.
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The release of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) after the first and last treatments in a course of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was measured in nine depressed patients free of neuroleptic drugs. There were close correlations between altered TSH release after a course of ECT and changes in bilateral spike wave activity (r = 0.99, p less than .0.001) and total seizure length (r = 0.72, p less than 0.05) as measured by six-channel electroencephalogram. The close correlation of TSH release after ECT with seizure activity makes it unlikely that the study of TSH release will provide new insights into the mode of action of this controversial treatment.