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Electroconvulsive therapy in Wales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Richard Duffett*
Affiliation:
The Royal College of Psychiatrists Research Unit, London and Specialist Registrar Trainee, Tower Hamlets Healthcare NHS Trust St Clement's Hospital, 2A Bow Road, London E3 4LL
Drew Ridley Siegert
Affiliation:
Whitchurch Hospital, Cardiff
Paul Lelliott
Affiliation:
The Royal College of Psychiatrists Research Unit, London
*
Correspondence
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Abstract

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Aims and method

The use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was surveyed over the first six months of 1996 in Wales. Data on the indications for ECT and clinical outcome were collected in the first three months.

Results

The computed annual rate was 22 patients treated with ECT per 100 000 population. Women constituted 71% of those receiving ECT (236/321). Eighty-three per cent had an affective disorder, and 80% had failed to respond to previous treatments. Only 33% of patients had been prescribed more than one class of antidepressant and only 25% had received augmentation with lithium or an alternative drug before being given ECT.

Clinical implications

ECT is mostly used after a failure of patients to respond adequately to a course of antidepressants.

Type
Original Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

References

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