Does Gender Influence Electroconvulsive Therapy Sessions Required across Psychiatric Diagnoses? A 5-Year Experience from a Single Center.

CONTEXT: There is a paucity of systematic data reflecting the practice of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) from developing countries.

AIM: We aimed to identify the number of ECT sessions required to yield response and gender diffeferences in the number of sessions across various diagnostic categories.

SETTING AND

DESIGN

A record-based study from a teaching cum tertiary care hospital in South India.

SUBJECTS AND

METHODS

Case records of patients who received modified ECT from January 2011 to January 2016 were reviewed. The sociodemographic details and ECT-related data were collected. Psychiatric diagnoses were ascertained as per the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision criteria.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U-test.

RESULTS

Among 148 patients, 82 (55.4%) had mood disorder (bipolar disorder and recurrent depressive disorder), 43 (29.1%) had schizophrenia, and 22 (14.9%) had other acute and transient psychotic disorders (ATPDs). Patients with mood disorders, schizophrenia, and other ATPD received 7.3 (± 3.8), 9.7 (± 6.1), and 5.4 (± 2.0) ECT sessions, respectively, to achieve response. There was no gender difference in the number of sessions received.

CONCLUSION

Our findings show that number of ECT sessions required to yield response may be disorder-specific. Gender does not influence the ECT dose requirement. Variations in ECT parameters across settings may limit the generalizability of results.