In the 30s, the treatment of involutional melancholia left a great deal to be desired. Drugs, mainly barbiturates, were employed. Other forms of treatment were continuous tubs, rehabilitation through ‘moral treatment’, and narcosis therapy. These patients had a 50% chance of getting well and a 25% chance of destroying themselves. With the advent of ECT in 1938, a form of treatment specific for depressions was found. The prognosis changed to a recovery rate of nearly 100%.