ECT folks: MECTA vs Thymatron?

[Ludwig2000]

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I work at a place that does ECT. A few years ago, facility switched from a Thymatron to a MECTA machine.
The nurses who have worked there for many years said that after the switch, patients seemed to need many more treatments to get a response. What’s more- maintenance patients who had been coming every few weeks for years, started decompensating and ending up back in hospital after the switch. These being patients at 100% energy on either machine.

Has anyone else seen this phenomenon? The literature says no difference in efficacy, though at least the newest Thymatrons seem to have slightly higher current (900 mA as opposed to 800 mA for the MECTA). Or if you’ve had experiences in the other direction that’d be helpful too.

 

[Ironspy]

I’ve used both and have not noticed any meaningful difference. Is it possible one of the machines in question needs calibration?

 

[Hash Slinging Slasher]

For what it's worth Thymatron outputs 504 mC at 100% whereas MECTA outputs 576 mC at 100%. Whether that translates to a clinically significant difference at charges that high is a question for someone smarter than me.

I personally prefer the MECTA since the parameters are more fine-tunable / granular (PW, Hz, Duration, Current) along with the EEG/EMG on screen.