Effect of Anaesthesia Electroconvulsive Therapy Time Interval on Duration of Convulsion - A Randomized, Open Labelled Comparative Study

Introduction: Typical anaesthetic agents used during Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT) have anticonvulsant effect which can impact the generalized seizure induced during the ECT procedure. As per the recent literature, Anaesthesia to ECT time interval (AETI) has significant impact on duration of convulsion and quality of seizure. Hence, the current study was aimed at assessing the AETI on duration of convulsion and its efficacy. Methodology: It is a randomized, comparative study. Subjects were randomized into two groups, Group A had longer AETI - 90 seconds, Group B shorter AETI of 30 seconds. Total 60 samples with 30 subjects in each group. All were given 4 sessions of ECTs, and the duration of seizure was measured after each session, clinical outcome was measured by Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) before and after the 4th session of ECT. Results: The mean duration of convulsion in Group A (45.9712.57 seconds) is longer compared to Group B (23.695.86 seconds) and was statistically significant, even in individual sessions of ECT, group A had longer duration of convulsion. The mean decrease in BPRS scores of both groups were compared as a measure of efficacy and found that Group A had a higher mean decrease in BPRS score (9.533.05) compared to Group B (6.52.58) which was statistically significant. Conclusion: Study showed that Group A with longer AETI when compared to Group B with shorted AETI, had longer duration of convulsion and a good clinical outcome as measured with mean decrease in BPRS score, which were statistically significant.