Retrograde Amnesia after ECT. An Attempt to Demonstrate Reminder-effects in Humans

In a study of the retrograde amnesic effect of bilateral ECT, twelve patients were subjects in a repeated measures design. Both verbal and nonverbal materials were used and retention was tested with different methods: Yes-no recognition, forced-choice recognition and recall cued by initial letters. The absolute amount of retrograde amnesia was small; there seemed to be no difference between verbal and nonverbal materials, and cueing with initial letters was not found to be an effective method of reducing amnesia.