This volume presents a timely account of the present state of ECT research and clinical practice and the irreplaceable niche ECT occupies in the treatment hierarchy of severe mental illness. Interdisciplinary contributors to The Clinical Science of Electroconvulsive Therapy use both longitudinal and cross-sectional perspectives to synthesize the latest information on ECT. This book reviews -- comprehensively and carefully -- today's knowledge of indications, techniques, clinical outcomes, and mechanisms of action of ECT.