A naturalistic study of high-dose unilateral ECT among severely depressed inpatients: how does it work in the clinical practice?

Background: Naturalistic studies can be useful tools to understand how an intervention works in the real clinical practice. This study aims to investigate the outcomes in a naturalistically treated depressed inpatients cohort, who were referred, or not, to unilateral ECT.

Methods: Depressed adults according to MINI admitted in a psychiatric unit were divided in unilateral ECT treated and non-ECT treated.