Korean J Anesthesiol.  1969 Jan;2(1):49-52.

Clinical Evaluation of Electro-convulsive Therapy under the General Anesthesia

• Whang CJ
• Limb JT
• Kim SY

Abstract

In 1938 Cerletti described a method of producing convulsions by eleetricity and began its use in the treatment of schizophrenias. In avoider to avoid fractures or dislocation and to diminish the risk, convulsion may be modified by means of drugs which inhibit the action of acetylcholine at neuro-muscular junctions and often the muscular contractions combining ultra short acting barbiturate especially thiopental sodium. Since ultra short acting barbiturat, like thiopental, require postanesthesia supervision of the patient for up to an hour, the recentlyintroduced ultrashort-acting nonbarbiturate anesthetic agent, propanidid, was investigated for comparison with thiopental sodium. One hundred psychiatric patients under the diognosis of involutional melancholia, manic depressive psychosis, schizophrenia and neurotic depression, divided into two equal groups, were subjected to electroconvulsive therapy by thiopental-succinylcholine (Group 1) and propanidid-succinyl choline (Group 2). In our study, there were no definite change in blood pressure and heart rate after electroconvulsive therapy in both group. Duration of apnea in Group 2 averaged 63 seconds longer than in Group 1, but awakening and ambulation averaged 5 minutes and 40 minutes shorter than in Group 1. Complications after E.C.T. were minimal and not significant different between two groups.

MeSH Terms

Acetylcholine
Anesthesia, General*
Apnea
Bipolar Disorder
Blood Pressure
Choline
Depressive Disorder
Depressive Disorder, Major
Dislocations
Electroconvulsive Therapy
Heart Rate
Humans
Muscle Contraction
Organization and Administration
Propanidid
Schizophrenia
Seizures
Thiopental
Walking
Acetylcholine
Choline
Propanidid
Thiopental