HealthDay (6/17, Thompson) reports a systematic review and meta-analysis of 11 previous studies suggests that “electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) lowered the risk of death by suicide 34% among patients with severe depression.” They noted that “depression patients receiving ECT also had a 30% lower risk of death from any cause,” and these “benefits might be even greater than reflected, given that ECT has improved as a psychiatric treatment.” With that said, “because the studies were observational and not clinical trials, they cannot draw a direct cause-and-effect link between ECT and lowered suicide risk.” The study was published in the journal Neuroscience Applied. (SOURCE: APA Headlines)