OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between speed of clinical response and both applied dose to produce seizure and seizure duration in inpatients with depression who underwent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in Dicle University Faculty of Medicine Psychiatry Service between 1 st June 2006 and 1 st June 2008.
METHODS: The sociodemodemographic and diagnostic features of 48 inpatients who underwent ECT in our clinic between 1 st June 2006 and 1 st June 2008 were examined retrospectively. In order to establish correlations between applied dose and seizure duration on the one hand and speed of clinical response during ECT treatment on the other, data of 21 inpatients with depression whose cure was completed in spite of adequate clinical response were analyzed using chi-square and Mann Whitney U tests.
RESULTS: In our study, 87 (16.3%) of the 533 inpatients were diagnosed with depression, 48 (9.0%) of all inpatients received ECT, 32 (66.7 %) of ECT recipients were diagnosed with depression, 21 (65.6%) of those 32 recipients had adequate clinical response and completed the cure. 57.1% of the patients with depression who completed the cure receied ECT with the indication of suicide attempt/suicidal ideation. Among patients who had adequate clinical response; our analyses indicated that patients received six and less ECT treatments needed lower dose and had longer seizure duration than patients received seven and more ECT treatment.
CONCLUSION: The results of our study show that beginning from the first ECT treatment the droopiness of the applied dose to produce seizure and the length of seizure duration may predict that patients with depression will have more rapid clinical response during ECT treatment. However, further research which includes more patients is needed about this issue.