The controlled induction of a grand mal seizure under anesthesia for treating individuals suffering from certain psychiatric illnesses. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was introduced as a treatment for psychiatric disorders by the Italian neurologist Ugo Cerletti in 1938. Cerletti developed a method of electrically inducing seizures in laboratory animals as a means of studying epilepsy. Aware of the observation that individuals with epilepsy and depression experienced an improvement in mood following a seizure, he postulated that inducing a seizure in a depressed individual might improve his or her condition. In 1938 he reported the first case of a psychiatric patient treated with ECT with dramatic, positive results.