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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

The pros and cons of unmodified ECT

The pros and cons of unmodified ect

The requirement for anesthesia and muscle relaxants poses a significant barrier to access to ECT, and patients who cannot access modified ECT often receive no ECT at all; this calls for a discussion of the clinical, ethical, and policy dimensions of unmodified ECT.

The talk addresses access to and underuse of ECT through the question, "Is providing no ECT always better than providing unmodified ECT?" Various clinical guidelines recommend ECT for treatment-resistant mood and psychotic disorders and in situations requiring rapid relief of severe symptoms; a substantial proportion of people with severe mental illness would therefore be expected to benefit from ECT. Nevertheless, ECT use has declined in many countries; the presentation examines the factors contributing to this trend, the possibility of underuse, and the implications for contemporary psychiatric practice. One important reason for underuse is the requirement for anesthesia and muscle relaxants: modified ECT, administered with anesthesia and muscle relaxation, is the current standard of care, offers several advantages over unmodified ECT, which is administered without muscle relaxants, and is recommended by most contemporary guidelines, but entails substantial barriers related to cost and access. Unmodified ECT, meanwhile, is legally prohibited or effectively unavailable in many countries; as a result, patients who need ECT but cannot access modified ECT may receive no ECT at all, leaving them without a highly effective treatment option. The talk discusses the clinical, ethical, and policy dimensions of unmodified ECT and the extent to which patients should have a say in choosing this form of treatment.

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