Effect of electroconvulsive therapy on serum myelin basic protein immunoreactivity.

A sensitive radioimmunoassay that can detect brain damage in cases of head injury and stroke was applied to blood samples from 13 patients before and after they received multiple treatments with electroconvulsive therapy for psychiatric disorder. None of the patients showed a significant increase in serum myelin basic protein immunoreactivity. As increased serum myelin basic protein immunoreactivity may reflect myelin damage it is apparent that in these patients electroconvulsive therapy did not cause measureable breakdown of myelin.