Movement, monitoring and electroconvulsive therapy

Bispectral index monitoring during electroconvulsive therapy under propofol anaesthesia.

BACKGROUND The accuracy of the bispectral index (BIS) as a monitor of consciousness has not been well studied in patients who have abnormal electroencephalograms (EEG). METHODS We studied the changes in BIS, its subparameters, and spectral entropy of the EEG during 18 electroconvulsive treatments under propofol and succinylcholine anaesthesia. A single bifrontal EEG, and second subocular chan...

Propofol and electroconvulsive therapy.

(being a private hospital) where often the most difficult patients are admitted. The situation with restricted patients is differ ent. The RMO has no authority to discharge the patient, although the Home Office could be accused of passing the buck. It is unfair that administrative officers and clerks, hundreds of miles away at the Home Office, should make this decision for some of the most diff...

Electroconvulsive Therapy

Electroconvulsive Therapy and Medical Illness

Physicians who use electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) need to be vigilant for unstable medical conditions before and during the course of treatment. This brief review is intended to highlight some basic principles and specific concerns that may be encountered in the use of ECT in patients who have comorbid medical illness. For more extensive discussions, I refer the reader to recent reviews of ECT...

Electroconvulsive therapy and serum potassium.

In 54 patients presenting for electroconvulsive therapy, the concentration of serum potassium was measured before and after the induced convulsion modified with a standard anaesthetic technique of methohexitone and suxamethonium. It was found that there was a statistically significant rise in serum potassium, but that the duration of convulsion had no significant effect on that rise in serum po...