Efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy and its impact on quality of life of patient: A longitudinal study

• Main Authors: Saurav Kumar, Daniel Saldanha, Suprakash Chaudhury
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2020-01-01
• Series: Medical Journal of Dr. D.Y. Patil Vidyapeeth
• Subjects: efficacy; electroconvulsive therapy; quality of life
• Online Access: http://www.mjdrdypv.org/article.asp?issn=2589-8302;year=2020;volume=13;issue=4;spage=373;epage=378;aulast=Kumar

Background: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) decreases the morbidity in psychiatric illnesses, reduces drug requirement during maintenance, which leads to improvement in quality of life (QOL) in a shorter duration of time. Aim: This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of ECT and its impact on the QOL in patients suffering from affective disorders and schizophrenia treated with ECT and pharmacotherapy compared to patients treated with pharmacotherapy alone. Materials and Methods: Thirty consecutive patients diagnosed as per ICD 10 DCR criteria suffering from affective disorder or schizophrenia admitted to the psychiatric ward of a tertiary care hospital needing ECT were compared with equal number of age, sex, and diagnosis matched patients treated by medication alone. All patients gave informed consent. Pro forma containing demographic and clinical details was recorded. Positive and negative syndrome scale, Beck's Depression Inventory II, and short form-36 (SF-36) were applied to all the individuals at the time of admission, 3 months' and 6 months' post-ECT. Results: The ECT group showed a significant improvement in severity and QOL at 3 months' follow up (P < 0.0001), followed by a steady continuation in improvement at 6 months as compared to the non-ECT group, which showed very steady improvement throughout the 6 months (P < 0.0001). Henceforth, a rapid improvement in the severity was found to be associated with the ECT group. Both the domains of QOL, i.e., SF-36 physical component summary and mental component summary were dependent on the severity of illness. Improvement in the severity led to a betterment in the QOL scores in all the patients. Conclusion: ECT along with psychotropic medications gives better results in terms of reducing the severity of the disease. Along with reducing the severity, it also helps the patient to achieve a better QOL.