Benefits of ECT May Outweigh Risks for Patients Hospitalized for Depression

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) does not appear to significantly increase the risk of serious medical events in adults who are hospitalized for depression, according to a study published Monday inThe Lancet Psychiatry. Additionally, thestudy found that ECT may reduce the risk of suicide in these patients.Despite substantial evidence that ECT can help patients with treatment-resistant depression, ECT remains underused, due in part to patients ’ concerns over potential side effects of the treatment, wrote Tyler S. Kaster, M.D., of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto and colleagues. “For patients to make fully informed decisions regarding electroconvulsive therapy, studies need to assess risk of serious medical events among those with depression who receive electroconvulsive therapy compared with those who receive standard care,” they wrote.Kaster and colleagues compared more than 10,000 hospitalization records for adults with depression who received treatment at psychiatric inpatient facilities in Ontario, Canada, for more than three days between April 1, 2007, and February 28, 2017. The researchers examined the number of serious medical events (defined as hospitalization or death) experienced by patients who received ECT during their hospitalization compared with those who did not receive ECT. Specifically, the researchers were interested in serious medical events that occurred within 30 days of the first exposure to ECT or the corresponding index date ...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: death depression ECT electroconvulsive therapy hospitalization Lancet Psychiatry suicide Source Type: research