Self-report of improvement following hospitalization for electroconvulsive therapy: relationship to functional status and service use.

From the perspective of the consumer, improvement is important in the assessment of treatment outcome. In order to gain a better understanding of health related factors that are meaningful to service recipients, patients who had been hospitalized for electroconvulsive therapy were surveyed following discharge to the community. Self-reported improvement was related to frequency of social contact and being able to engage in useful work. It was also related to a global-assessment-of-functioning score at the time of discharge from the hospital. The receipt of aftercare was not related to the degree of self-reported improvement in this study.