WHAT ARE THE RISKS?

The risks are small.

• The most commonly quoted low mortality rate for ECT does not adequately account for all the risks of treatment.
• Patients with a pre-existing medical condition are at increased risk of experiencing cardiac or respiratory problems following treatment.
• All ECT centres in Scotland use guidelines which stress the importance of pre-treatment medical assessments to identify and minimise any risk.
• The risk of a swing into manic mood is the same as for treatment with antidepressant drugs.
• Not having ECT also has risks. Studies have shown that depressive illness increases mortality rate and the suicide rate is higher in depressed patients not treated with ECT.
• RisksofAnaesthesia2.doc