Division of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), is a well-established, safe and effective psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Although it is rarely used as a first line of treatment, ECT is most often used as a treatment for severe major depression which has not responded to other treatment, and is also used in the treatment of mania (often in bipolar disorder), and catatonia . Today, an estimated 1 million people worldwide receive ECT every year, usually in an acute course of 6–12 treatments administered 2 or 3 times a week. After completion of an acute course of ECT, drug therapy is usually continued, and some patients receive continuation/maintenance ECT.

Lenox Hill Hospital offers ECT as a treatment option for patients hospitalized on our Inpatient psychiatric unit (8 URIS), as well as Ambulatory ECT in our Ambulatory Surgery Department for outpatients who are referred by their psychiatrist for acute or maintenance/continuation ECT.

Please contact, Rosa Rivera, ECT Coordinator, at (212) 434-2830 for further information regarding ECT at Lenox Hill Hospital. Most insurance, including Medicare, is accepted.