Several investigations into the ability of an individual to learn new material after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) have shown that, compared with the pretreatment state, there is impaired function for at least one day after a course of treatment, and that one week or more after the end of the therapy, a return to pretreatment levels or even improvement is observed.2,7,9,10,12,14-16The improvement has been ascribed to alleviation of the psychopathologic state with return to normal mental functioning, whereas the initial deterioration is regarded as a direct effect of ECT, to a great extent determined by the energy of the electrical stimulation.11 The absence of a long-term deterioration in most previous investigations may be due to several facts. Tests with low sensitivity to the influence of ECT or with low reliability may have been used. Furthermore, the adverse effect may be counterbalanced or even outweighed