A retrospective comparison of patients which applied at Akdeniz University Hospital Psychiatry Clinic in terms of sociodemografic and clinical features

Introduction: In this study, it was aimed to reveal the rates of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) application to patients hospitalized in a university hospital psychiatry clinic, to reveal the retrospective sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients who underwent ECT, and to compare various subgroups in terms of these characteristics. Methods: In this study, 301 patients who received ECT from 3589 patients who were hospitalized in the Psychiatry Clinic of Akdeniz University Medical Faculty Hospital between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2019 were included. The files of the patients who were hospitalized and treated with ECT between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2019 were scanned retrospectively; Various data such as age, gender and other sociodemographic characteristics, clinical characteristics, diagnoses according to DSM, indications for ECT, number of ECT applied, complications after ECT, and response to ECT were evaluated. The data were analyzed using the SPSS 23.0 program. Results: It was determined that ECT was applied to 301 (8.3%) of 3589 patients who were hospitalized in our clinic for a 6-year period. The mean age of the patients was 45.81 ± 15.10 years. Of the patients, 198 (65.8%) were female and 103 (34.2%) were male. There was no statistically significant difference between the ECT parameters of female and male patients. It was determined that an average of 8.64 ± 2.43 sessions of ECT was applied to the patients, and 87.7% of the patients had complete or partial recovery. It was observed that ECT was applied most frequently to patients diagnosed with mood disorder (77.4%), and secondly to patients with psychotic disorder (16.9%). Considering the patients' benefit from ECT according to their diagnoses, it was found that patients diagnosed with mood disorder benefited more from ECT than those with psychotic disorders, and this analysis was statistically significant. A positive correlation was found between age and benefiting from ECT and it was found to be statistically significant. Complications occurred in 44 (14.6%) of the patients, and the most common of these complications were confusion, headache and forgetfulness. When patients with and without complications were compared in terms of gender, diagnosis and presence of chronic disease, no statistically significant difference was found. Conclusion: This study showed that ECT is an effective, safe treatment with a very low risk of side effects. It is obvious that it is a fast and effective treatment method especially in mood disorders and psychotic disorders. Keywords: ECT, depression, mood disorder, psychotic disorder