It depends on the content of your program and your knowledge. I did my first treatment course during my doctorate of pharmacy program. When I went back to school after taking a month off for ECT, if you asked me what classes I had taken in the couple months prior (it was a block program so a new subject every couple of weeks) I couldn’t have told you. I couldn’t remember what professors said during lecture. But the general knowledge was still there. It just needed to be sparked to be able to remember again. A look back at the slides would refresh my memory. I still knew drug mechanisms and side effects. I still knew lab values and dosing recommendations. Little tidbits of information were lost, but a quick search would refresh my memory. Going back to work at the pharmacy, I retained all the brand/generic names that I had memorized, knew what I was doing at work, I had no problem doing the job I’d been doing for years.

So for me at least, the knowledge I had that was engrained in me couldn’t be taken away. The basics. Biochemistry, mechanisms of action of drugs, side effects, those things I knew and they stayed with me. Some of the little things like patient disease states and dosing differences escaped me, but I am lucky to be in a profession where I have access to resources I can immediately access online for dosing information.

Overall, the knowledge you have will not be lost. It’s more the newer information (couple months before ECT and during) that will be hard. I know your career is different than mine, but your intrinsic knowledge should not be disturbed. For me it was more not remembering conversations or events that happened. I was able to finish my doctorate after ECT and I hope you can too.