Satisfaction and attitude of bipolar patients regarding electroconvulsive therapy: Modified or unmodified

Objective: Ministry of Health of Turkey issued a legislation to use only modified electroconvulsivetherapy (ECT) in 2005, and this study aimed to assess satisfaction and attitude of bipolar patientsregarding modified and unmodified electroconvulsive therapy.Methods: A total of 100 patients (50 treated with modified electroconvulsive therapy (M-ECT) and 50treated with unmodified ECT (UM-ECT) with a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder (depressive or manic episode)were invited to participate in this study. Patients with euthymic mood were included.Satisfaction and attitude towards ECT were evaluated with a structured attitude questionnaire, and MECTand UM-ECT patients, and their subgroups (depressive vs. manic) were compared.Results: No significant differences were found between M-ECT and UM-ECT groups regarding age, sex,marital status and occupation. The majority of all patients (78%) were satisfied from treatment withECT and with the outcome (88%), without significant differences between modified and unmodifiedgroups. Forgetfulness (70%) and headaches (57%) occurred in all groups, with the only significant differencein forgetfulness being reported by more manic patients treated with UM-ECT. Depressive andmanic patients treated with UM-ECT reported concerns of brain damage and physical harm significantlymore frequently. While 86% of patients treated with M-ECT consented to a future treatment,this was significantly less in patients treated with UM-ECT (50%).Conclusions: Bipolar patients report a high degree of satisfaction treated either with modified orunmodified ECT but there was a significant difference in perception of adverse effects and willingnessfor receiving ECT in future

Türkiye örnekleminde ruh sağlığı çalışanlarının geleneksel ve modifiye elektrokonvulsif tedavi yöntemlerine yönelik tutumları

Objective: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been used frequently in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. By the year 2005, unmodified (without anesthesia) ECT started to be replaced by modified (under anesthesia) ECT. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the attitudes towards modified versus unmodified applications of ECT among the mental health professionals who experienced this transition period. Material and Method: Three subgroups of mental health professionals including psychiatric nurses, psychiatric trainees and psychiatrists who had at least 30 experiences of each ECT method, were asked to fulfill the semi-structured questionnaire. The questionnaire contained items related to participants’ attitudes towards each ECT method in terms of their efficacy, side effects, safety, satisfaction during application and their opinions about this transition to modified method. Results: In total, 54 (27.0%) psychiatrists, 82 (41.0%) trainees and 64(32.0%) psychiatric nurses were participated. In terms of efficiency, 53.7% of psychiatrists and 47.6% of trainees stated that the two ECT methods were equal. However according to 56.3% of psychiatric nurses unmodified ECT method was more effective than the modified one (χ2:10.615, p=0.031). Mental health professionals showed a common attitude towards the safety and satisfaction (for safety χ2:0.296, p=1.000 and for satisfaction χ2:1.987 p=0.778). For both safety and satisfaction all health professionals replied in favor to modified ECT applications. In all subgroups of professionals, according to majority of participants modified ECT method had less side effects (χ2:14.364, p=0.006) and reported positive opinion about the transition to the modified ECT applications (χ2:10.058, p=0.014). Conclusion: Mental health professionals had a positive attitude to the transition from unmodified to modified ECT and they found the modified ECT safer than unmodified one. Psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses were different in terms of their attitudes for the efficacy of ECT methods. © 2021, Nobelmedicus. All rights reserved.2-s2.0-8511435729