Contemporary status of electroconvulsive therapy in a teaching psychiatricunit 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 f rom the computerized inpatient psychiatric register. This study aimed to an swer the following points: indications, safety of procedure, response to tr eatment, and factors predicting response. The study showed that approximate ly 5% of all inpatients were given ECT. The most frequent diagnoses of pati ents receiving ECT were schizophrenia, major affective disorders, and postn atal 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 r esponse excellent. ICD-10 psychiatric diagnoses, the sex of the patients, a nd the age of the patients did not predict the response to ECT. Only the se verity index on admission was found to be a significant predictor of respon se to ECT. The procedure was found to be very safe, and pre-ECT evaluation for medical risk was appropriate, as was its administration.