Electroconvulsive therapy in patients with epilepsy

Abstract

There are scant published data to guide the clinician about safe and effective use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in epileptic patients who suffer from psychiatric disorders. In this report, we describe our experience treating 43 epileptic patients with ECT. Seven of the patients may have had spontaneous seizures during the course of treatments, although the possibility of pseudoseizures or nonictal phenomena seemed quite likely in several of these cases. For the majority of patients, adequate seizures could be obtained during ECT despite concomitant treatment with antiepileptic medications, although dose reductions were required in a few cases. Most patients enjoyed moderate to marked reductions in psychiatric symptoms with ECT, and one patient seemed to have a marked reduction in spontaneous seizure frequency for several weeks after completion of the ECT course. We conclude that most epileptic patients can be treated with ECT without dose adjustment in antiepileptic medications and provide general recommendations for safe use of ECT in this population.