Contemporary status of electroconvulsive therapy in a teaching psychiatric unit in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

To evaluate the contemporary status of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), all patients who received ECT over a 2-year period (1995-96) were identified from the computerized inpatient psychiatric register. This study aimed to answer the following points: indications, safety of procedure, response to treatment, and factors predicting response. The study showed that approximately 5% of all inpatients were given ECT. The most frequent diagnoses of patients receiving ECT were schizophrenia, major affective disorders, and postnatal psychiatric disorders. In 24% of patients the response to ECT was poor or minimal. Only in 33% of the cases regardless of the diagnosis was the response excellent. ICD-10 psychiatric diagnoses, the sex of the patients, and the age of the patients did not predict the response to ECT. Only the severity index on admission was found to be a significant predictor of response to ECT. The procedure was found to be very safe, and pre-ECT evaluation for medical risk was appropriate, as was its administration.