Optimal Dose of Succinylcholine and Rocuronium for Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2015-02-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the transcutaneous application of small electrical stimuli
to the brain to produce generalized seizures for the treatment of selected psychiatric
disorders such as severe depression. The aim of ECT is to induce a therapeutic tonic seizure
where the person loses consciousness and has convulsions. Patients need general anesthesia
and neuromuscular blockade to treat pain and avoid excessive tonic clonic motor contraction
that might be associated with compression fractures. Neuromuscular blocking drugs (NMBD) are,
therefore, administered after induction of general anesthesia to induce neuromuscular
blockade. Despite the importance of NMBDs to provide optimal conditions for ECT treatment,
the optimal NMBD dose to achieve acceptable neuromuscular blockade without excessive or
untoward effects has not previously been identified in any study and in a prospective
randomized fashion. The aim of this study is, therefore, to identify the optimal NMBD dose of
two commonly used neuromuscular blocking agents (succinylcholine and rocuronium) in order to
optimize the muscle strength modulation during ECT that facilitates ECT with the minimal side
effects.