Abram Elting Bennett was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

 best known for his work on electroconvulsive therapy

Electroconvulsive therapy

Electroconvulsive therapy , formerly known as electroshock, is a psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Its mode of action is unknown...

 (ECT).

Bennett published over 50 research articles and several books, including Fifty Years in Neurology and Psychiatry (1972), Alcoholism and the Brain (1977) and Huguenots Migration: Descendants' Contributions to America (1984). In the 1930s, Bennett introduced the use of curare

Curare

Curare is a common name for various arrow poisons originating from South America. The three main types of curare are:* tubocurare...

 to prevent fractures and other adverse side effects caused by shock treatments. He also advocated pentylenetetrazol

Pentylenetetrazol

Pentylenetetrazol , also known as metrazol, pentetrazol, pentamethylenetetrazol, Cardiazol or PTZ, is a drug used as a circulatory and respiratory stimulant. High doses cause convulsions, as discovered by the Hungarian-American neurologist and psychiatrist Ladislas J. Meduna in 1934...

 to induce convulsions in patients.

Bennett was affiliated with Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

, Bishop Clarkson Memorial Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...

 and the California Pacific Medical Center

California Pacific Medical Center

California Pacific Medical Center is one of the largest private, non-profit, academic medical centers in Northern California. The Medical Center is a combination of four of San Francisco's oldest medical institutions: Pacific Presbyterian Hospital, Children's Hospital of San Francisco, Davies...

.

He contributed to the second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders...

.

External links

• Pioneers: Abram Elting Bennett, M.D. via California Pacific Medical Center