1991) Australia and New Zealand (1) Questionnaire

survey of ECT practice and attitudes to medical superintendents at hospitals. Frequency of unilateral versus bilateral electrode placement main aim. Sparse ECT utilization data Galletly CA (Galletly et al. 1991) South Australia (4) Too old, use of ECT data at hospital in Adelaide from 1981 to 1985 (five years). [Decline in use over period due to reduction of ECT for patients with schizophrenia] Gassy JE (Gassy and Rey 1990) NSW, #PS-341 keyword# Australia (4) Too old, a general hospital psychiatry unit use of ECT from April 1982 to December 1987 Ikeji OC (Ikeji et al. 1999) Nigeria (2) A prospective open-label study of 70 unmodified ECT treated patients without rate or prevalence data Odejide AO (Odejide et al. 1987) Nigeria (4) Sparse data from <1990, records from 1982 and1984 examined. Unmodified bilateral Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical ECT. Modified ECT was tried in 1979, but found too expensive. Thirty percent of patients ECT treated in 1984 and average no. of ECTs six, range 1–19 Okasha TA (Okasha 2007) Egypt (2) General article about ECT use, economic aspects, problems of training, ethical issues, and discrepancies between developed and developing countries

in its application. No ECT utilization Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical data Alhamad AM (Alhamad and,al–Haidar 1999) Saudi Arabia (3) Parallel publication, same data presented as in other included reference by same author (Alhamad 1999) Hermann RC (Hermann et al. 1999) USA (1) Retrospective study of ECT use among beneficiaries of

a New England insurance company in 1994 and 1995 Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Olfson M (Olfson et al. 1998) USA, New York (1) ECT use for general hospital in patients with only recurrent major depression diagnoses and estimate of effect on prompt ECT on the length of stay and cost of inpatient care Fink M (Fink and Kellner 2007) USA (1) General about ECT practice, no primary Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical data Eranti SV (Eranti and McLoughlin before 2003) UK, USA (2) Editorial article state of the art, no primary data Thompson JW (Thompson et al. 1994) USA (4) Too old, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) data, ECT-treated patients in 1975, 1980, and 1986, focusing on data from 1980 and 1986 Levav I (Levav and Gonzalez 1998) Latin America (3) Parallel publication in English, replication of primary data presented in earlier study/ publication in 1996 (Levav and Gonzalez 1996) Glen T (Glen and Scott 2000) Edinburgh, Scotland, UK (1) Calculated annual and aggregate rates of ECT use by consultant teams, not relevant Fergusson G (Fergusson et al. 2003) Scotland (3) Parallel publication, same data presented in included 2004 publication (Fergusson et al.