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Dr. Lim's practice audit of maintenance electroconvulsive therapy (M-ECT) in the elderly (Lim, 2006) describes a group of older people treated with M-ECT in Australia but does not describe the views of Australian psychiatrists regarding the use of this form of treatment. We explored the views of psychiatrists in northwest England regarding the use of M-ECT in the 1990s: our study group was a subset of the cohort reported in Benbow et al. (1998), namely those respondents to a first-stage questionnaire who stated that they had used M-ECT (25%) or were prepared to consider its use (67%). A second-stage questionnaire inquired specifically about practice in relation to M-ECT, defined as the regular administration of ECT in order to minimize the likelihood of further episodes of illness, and was sent to 85 individuals of whom 77 responded, giving a response rate of 87.5%. Of these respondents, 49% stated that they had not prescribed maintenance treatment within the past 10 years; 42% estimated that they had prescribed one or two courses; 8% three to four courses and 1% five to six courses. None had prescribed more than six courses, so the experience of any one individual was relatively limited.
