Kaster TS, Vigod SN, Gomes T, et al. - The risk of serious medical events, defined as those resulting in hospitalization or death, was compared between patients with depression who underwent electroconvulsive therapy vs those not receiving electroconvulsive therapy. They defined electroconvulsive therapy exposure as one or more physician billing procedure codes during hospitalization. For this propensity score-matched, retrospective cohort study, they identified 10,016 psychiatric hospitalization records (6,628 women, 3,388 men) with mean age 56·6 years (SD 16·3); no ethnicity data were available. Eligible for matching were 65,818 admissions and in each exposure group, 5,008 were matched. Findings yielded no evidence for a clinically significant increased risk for serious medical events among individuals hospitalized with depression in correlation with exposure to electroconvulsive therapy; significant reduction in the risk of suicide was noted, indicating that the advantages of electroconvulsive therapy for depression outcomes might outweigh its risks in this population.