ECT in anxiety: an appraisal.

Convulsive therapy is a specific therapy for patients with melancholia and catatonia, with a high success rate. There is little evidence, however, to encourage its use in patients with anxiety, or in the many subtypes of neuroses in which anxiety is prominent. Indeed, the principal contraindication to the use of convulsive therapy is the presence of anxiety, and patients with this syndrome should be shielded from this therapy.