Name Harold Sackeim Role Psychologist | Education Columbia University | |
Harold A. Sackeim is an American psychologist and proponent of electroconvulsive therapy, (ECT). He has been chief of the department of biological psychiatry at New York State Psychiatric Institute and professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University. He received his Bachelor's degree from Columbia in 1972; in 1974, he received his Master's degree from Oxford University.
Sackeim is co-author of more than 200 publications relating to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and has researched it extensively, finding that excessive shock current correlates with risk of memory loss.
In 2007 Sackeim and his colleagues published (in the journal 'Neuropsychopharmacology') the results of a study which followed 250 ECT patients in New York City hospitals. The study found that the various techniques used when giving ECT can have a direct impact on the adverse effects experienced by patients, and that right unilateral, ultra brief appears to be the most efficacious, while remaining the least likely to cuse prolonged adverse effects..