ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) in a General Hospital Psychiatric Inpatient Unit [Utilización de la terapia electroconvulsiva en una unidad de agudos de hospital general]

Goal. The aim of the investigation focused on a retrospective analysis of the clinical use of ECT in the Acute Psychiatric Unit of The University Hospital of Guadalajara. Method. All patients admitted to our psychatric unit from 1993 to 1998 and who underwent ECT along their hospitalization, were included in the analysis. Age of the sample ranged from 17 to 79. Several variables were controlled, including technical parametres of ETC application. Results. All patients with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder showed full remision afler ECT. Among patients diagnosed of schizofrenia, 60% experimented full remision and 40% partial remision. In the group of subjets with depression, 66.6% showed full remision, 27.7% parcial remision and 5.7% no response. Besides, ETC appeared to be more effective in subjets without psychiatric comorbility. Conclusion. The present retrospective analysis support that ECT still must he considered an effective, useful and safe therapeutic technique. In our review, adverse reactions to ECT have been limited and rare, and mostly reversible