title: Electroconvulsive therapy in palliative care.
abstract: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a highly effective psychiatric treatment for states of depression, mania, psychosis, or behavioral agitation in dementia. As it does involve intravenous access, general anesthesia, and significant side effects, it may be viewed as too ''invasive'' for patients on palliative care measures. However, we describe several patients treated on our busy ECT service at a tertiary hospital, who were receiving palliative care who, on balance, were felt to have better quality of life with continued use of ECT. We conclude that ECT should not be automatically discarded in patients receiving palliative care and offer some guidelines for its use in this population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN55905, USA. rasmussen.keith@mayo.edu
authors.forename: Keith G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.forename: Jarrett W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Richardson
mesh_terms: D004565:Electroconvulsive Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D010148:Intractable Pain / Q000628:therapy*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome