The British Journal of Psychiatry (2007) 190: 435-439. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.106.026740
© 2007 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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All–cause mortality among recipients of electroconvulsive therapy

Register-based cohort study

Trine Munk-Olsen, MSc and Thomas Munk Laursen, PhD

National Centre for Register-Based Research, University of Aarhus, Denmark

Poul Videbech, DrMedSc

Centre for Basic Psychiatric Research, Psychiatric Hospital, Risskov, Denmark

Preben Bo Mortensen, DrMedSc

National Centre for Register-Based Research, University of Aarhus, Denmark

Raben Rosenberg, DrMedSc

Centre for Basic Psychiatric Research, Psychiatric Hospital, Risskov, Denmark

Correspondence: Trine Munk-Olsen, Centre for Register-Based Research, University of Aarhus, Taasingegade 1, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. Email: tmo{at}ncrr.dk

Declaration of interest None.

Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

Background Studies investigating mortality secondary to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) are few.

Aims To assess the riskof mortality from natural and unnatural causes among ECT recipients compared with other psychiatric in-patients over a 25-year period.

Method Register-based cohort study of all in-patients admitted to a psychiatric hospital from 1976 to 2000. Cause-specific mortality was analysed using log-linear Poisson regression.

Results There were 783 deceased in-patients who had received ECT compared with 5781 who had not. Patients who had received ECT had a lower overall mortality rate from natural causes (RR=0.82, 95% CI 0.74-0.90) but a slightly higher suicide rate (RR=1.20, 95% CI 0.99-1.47), especially within the first 7 days after the last ECT treatment (RR=4.82, 95% CI 2.12-10.95).

Conclusions Further investigation of the effect of ECT on physical health and the observed increased suicide rate immediately following treatment are needed, although the last finding is likely to result from selection bias.


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eLetters:

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Mortality and ECT
Rahul Bharadwaj, et al.
BJP Online, 29 May 2007 [Full text]
Mortality from natural causes and electroconvulsive therapy
Yann Le Strat, et al.
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Reply from Authors
Trine Munk-Olsen, et al.
BJP Online, 20 Jun 2007 [Full text]