[Clinical characteristics of patients treated with electroconvulsive therapy in a public hospital in Peru]. / Características clínicas de pacientes tratados con terapia electroconvulsiva en un hospital público de Perú.

With the purpose of describe the profile of use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on hospitalized patients at "Honorio Delgado - Hideyo Noguchi" National Institute of Mental Health in Lima, Peru, the medical records of patients receiving ECT between 2001 and 2011 were reviewed. The main findings were: four hundred and nineteen ECT courses were applied to 372 patients, with a total of 5439 applications the most common diagnosis was paranoid schizophrenia (70.7%), the most common indication was resistance to treatment (80.7%), also the clinical response to ECT was good in 70.1% of cases while side effects were generally transient and mild. The use of ECT decreased over the period of the study but it was tolerable and safe, especially in the modified version, and it had a high response rate so remains as a first-line psychiatric treatment.

Características clínicas de pacientes tratados con terapia electroconvulsiva en un hospital público de Perú / Clinical characteristics of patients treated with electroconvulsive therapy in a public hospital in Peru

Con el objetivo de describir el perfil de uso de la terapia electroconvulsiva (TEC) en pacientes hospitalizados en el Instituto Nacional de Salud Mental "Honorio Delgado - Hideyo Noguchiõ de Lima, Perú, se revisaron las historias clínicas de pacientes que recibieron TEC entre los años 2001 y 2011. Se aplicaron 419 cursos de TEC a 372 pacientes, con un total de 5439 aplicaciones; la esquizofrenia paranoide fue el diagnóstico más frecuente (70,7%), y la indicación más usual fue la resistencia al tratamiento (80,7%); asimismo, la respuesta clínica a la TEC fue buena en 70,1% de casos, mientras que los efectos secundarios, en general, fueron pasajeros y leves. El uso de TEC disminuyó a lo largo del periodo estudiado, pero fue muy tolerable y segura, especialmente en su versión modificada, y mostró una alta respuesta que la mantiene como un tratamiento psiquiátrico de primera línea...

With the purpose of describe the profile of use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on hospitalized patients at ôHonorio Delgado - Hideyo Noguchiõ National Institute of Mental Health in Lima, Peru, the medical records of patients receiving ECT between 2001 and 2011 were reviewed. The main findings were: four hundred and nineteen ECT courses were applied to 372 patients, with a total of 5439 applications the most common diagnosis was paranoid schizophrenia (70.7%), the most common indication was resistance to treatment (80.7%), also the clinical response to ECT was good in 70.1% of cases while side effects were generally transient and mild. The use of ECT decreased over the period of the study but it was tolerable and safe, especially in the modified version, and it had a high response rate so remains as a first-line psychiatric treatment...