A Survey of ECT in a General Hospital Psychiatry Unit

Abstract

A review of the 2,256 admissions to a general hospital psychiatry unit between April 1982 and December 1987 showed that 129 (6%) had been treated with electro-convulsive therapy (ECT); 91% of these had a diagnosis of mood disorder. Most patients were taking concurrent psychotropic medication and received an average of 9 treatments per course of ECT. Men and patients taking benzodiazepines had shorter convulsions. However, there were no differences in seizure length and number of treatments between younger and older patients and between those taking and not taking tricyclic antidepressants.

Half a century of ECT use in young people

“…(26). No patient younger than 19 years was given ECT at an acute unit in Sydney, Australia, between 1982 and 1988 (76). Therefore, rates of ECT use in young people are low.…”

Electroconvulsive Therapy Practice in Western Australia

“…5 Between April 1982 and December 1987, about half of ECT recipients in a NSW hospital were between 60 and 85 years of age. 6 Another NSW study 2 stated that the number of ECT recipients in private psychiatric services in 1985-1986 rose as the age of patient increased, so that older adults received ECT about twice as often as did younger adults. In comparison to the United States, the administration of ECT in the eastern Australian states was less common among elderly patients but the treatment constituted a large percentage of private psychiatric services received by the same age group.…”

“…7 Approximately one child was treated with ECT in the UK every 20 months. 8 Although no child younger than the age of 19 years was treated with ECT in NSW between 1982 and 1988, 6 by 1990, 20 of 41 participating hospitals in NSW administered ECT to children younger than 19 years old. 9 From a total of 48,373 ECT sessions conducted during the 5-year period, about 1% was administered in children younger than 19 years of age.…”

“…6 In the same hospital, about 91% of the ECT recipients were diagnosed with affective disorders, 3% with schizoaffective disorder, and 6% with schizophrenia.…”

“…1 In the psychiatric unit of a NSW general hospital, approximately 6% of the admissions were treated with 1,168 treatments of ECT within a 6-year period, which approximated a yearly rate of 1.24 treatments per 1,000 population. 6 About 18% of the ECT recipients received 44% of the total number of courses administered in the hospital. No study to date has documented the rate of ECT administration in Western Australia, so it is difficult to determine the standard of practice in relation to other regions.…”