Ugo Cerletti

Ugo Cerletti (1877–1963) was an Italian neuropsychiatrist who served as Chair of the Department of Mental and Neurological Diseases at the University of Rome La Sapienza. He is best known for inventing electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in collaboration with Lucio Bini, performing the first treatment on a human patient in April 1938. His work provided the first consistently effective treatment for severe mood disorders and psychoses and remains influential in psychiatric practice today.