Antidepressant effects of right versus left unilateral ECT and the lateralization theory of ECT action.

In a random-assignment, double-blind, controlled comparison of right versus left unilateral ECT in 30 melancholic men, the two methods were not significantly different in overall antidepressant potency, although there was a significantly faster rate of improvement with left unilateral ECT. These results imply that the antidepressant effects of ECT cannot be attributed primarily to right hemisphere mechanisms, as others have postulated.