Studied the records of 5729 psych admissions over a 3 yr period in 1 area where ECT was used heavily. 1236 subjects who received ECT were compared with those who did not. ECT recepients were older, more often female & had a greater no. of prev. admissions. ECT subjects did not differ from other subjects socially nor was ECT prescribed more often to subjects who demonstrated suicidal behavior, even if they had a diagnosis of depression. All subjects received equal amounts of psychotropic drugs.