ABSTRACT
Background: Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) refers to the electrical stimulation of the brain to produce seizures for therapeutic purpose. This study was undertaken with the aim of exploring the clinical and demographic profile of patients treated with ECT from a tertiary care psychiatry hospital in north India.Methods: It was a retrospective descriptive study of patients who were treated with ECT after admission in the inpatient psychiatry unit of Institute of mental health and neurosciences Kashmir during a period of one year (March 2017 to February 2018).Results: A total of 70 patients received ECT during the course of one year. About 72.85% of the patients belonged to 20-39 years age group. Female patients constituted more than half of the subjects (55.71%). Review of diagnostic profile showed that majority of patients receiving ECT were suffering from Schizophrenia (35.71%), followed by bipolar affective disorder (28.57%), depressive disorder (28.57%), schizoaffective disorder (4.28%) and substance induced mood/psychotic disorders (2.85%). A significant majority of subjects (57.13%) received about 7-9 ECT sessions. No any major complications were noted during ECT treatment.Conclusions: This study suggests that ECT, use as a treatment modality is common in adults between 20 to 39 years of age and females with Schizophrenia being the most common indications.
ABSTRACT
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a standard procedure in the modern psychiatric armamentarium. It involves, application of electric stimulus for a brief time in psychiatric patients to induce generalized seizure. ECT is utilized for treating various severe, treatment-resistant or refractory psychiatric disorders, schizophrenia and major depressive disorder (MDD). During ECT, severe disturbances can be noted in the cerebrovascular and cardiovascular system. Various anaesthetic drugs used in modified ECT can prevent these disturbances. We wanted to compare induction time, alteration of hemodynamics, seizure duration, and recovery time by using intravenous etomidate and intravenous propofol for induction of anaesthesia in modified electroconvulsive therapy.METHODSSixty patients were included in this prospective and comparative study. Patients of age group of 18–60 years of either sex, who had been posted for ECT therapy were randomly divided into two groups. Group E received Inj. Etomidate at 0.2 mg/Kg IV and Group P received Inj. Propofol 1% at 1.5 mg/Kg for induction of anaesthesia. Patients were monitored for various haemodynamic parameters such as heart rate, blood pressure at basal, after induction, and 1 min, 2 min, 3 min, 5 min, 10 min and 20 min following ECT. Induction time, seizure duration, quality of anaesthesia and recovery time from anaesthesia were also noted.RESULTSInduction of anaesthesia is faster with propofol (40.30 ± 3.65 sec) than with etomidate (48.63 ± 3.29 sec). Longer seizure duration was found with etomidate (58.90 ± 11.91 sec) induction in comparison to propofol (22.16 ± 5.48 sec) induction. Propofol group had more stable hemodynamic parameters compared to etomidate group following ECT. Propofol group (7 ± 1.43 min) achieved consciousness earlier than those of etomidate group (8.60 ± 1.16 min) following induction.CONCLUSIONSPropofol had the advantage of smooth induction, stable hemodynamic parameters, and rapid recovery as compared to etomidate. However, it was associated with shorter seizure duration. Etomidate had longer seizure duration which results in better clinical outcomes over propofol. However, it was associated with greater incidence of myoclonic jerks during induction.
ABSTRACT
Spine fractures occur less than 1% after electro-convulsive therapy(ECT). We report a rare case of thoracic compression fracture due to seizure after ECT. The patient was a 37-year-old female who suffered from major depression disorder. She received ECT six times in total. She complained of back pain after fifth ECT. There was no history of trauma. On thoracic CT and MRI, compression fracture of T4 body was clearly shown, but cord injury was not evident. After one month of bed rest, her back pain was improved. We discuss the mechanism of vertebral fracture after ECT with literature review.