Ketamine for Psychiatric Disorders

Abstract

This new edition of The ECT Handbook comes six years after the publication of the 3rd edition. In the intervening period there have been no major changes in the practice of electroconvulsive therapy, but continuing research has provided good new evidence on the optimal use of ECT in the treatment of mental disorders. This edition of the Handbook contains new chapters on ECT for bipolar depression, ECT in pregnancy and postnatally, ECT in children and adolescents and on the use of ketamine in treatment resistant depression. Many of the other chapters have been completely re-written by new authors and all have been substantially revised to include new evidence published until the end of 2018. There have been further developments to try to resolve the question about whether unilateral or bilateral ECT should be the initial technique when ECT is used in the treatment of depression and these are considered in Chapter 3. Other important new research has been conducted in the use of ECT in the treatment of bipolar depression and resistant schizophrenia and this is discussed in Chapters 5 and 10. We had expected a major revision of the guidance on the management of depression from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to be published before this volume in 2018 but its publication has been delayed. There has been a significant change in mental health law in Northern Ireland, which may have implications for other legislatures, but this has not come into force at the time that the Handbook goes to print"--