Non-stop management of an electroconvulsive therapy unit (ECT-U) during the first two months of COVID-19 lockdown in Spain

Abstract

Introduction Since the declaration of the national lockdown in Spain on March 14th until the publication of the SEPB recommendations on May 11th, most of the ECT-U closed or drastically reduced their activity. Objectives To present our non-stop management of an ECT-U during the first two months of COVID-19 lockdown in Spain. Methods We retrospectively analysed the time between sessions, the clinical, pharmacological and electrical data records of maintenance patients (m-ECT) and compared them with their own records in the two-month period prior to COVID-19. We analysed the length of admission, clinical, pharmacological and electrical records in hospitalized patients (i-ETC) and compared them with patients from the entire year prior to COVID-19 paired by age, sex and diagnosis. Results The ECT-m programme included 17 patients: we postponed the ECT in 8 patients; 1 patient was hospitalized and 8 patients continued normally. The time between m-ECT increased by 8.37±4.89 days (p=0.018) without relapse. During the COVID-19 period, we performed ECT-i in 14 patients without new infections. In i-ECT the duration of admissions increased by 22.1 ±1.2 days (p=0.006), the load increased by 81.53 ±87.8 mC (p=0.027) and the time of the electrical seizure decreased by 7.9 ±9.2 seconds (p=0.037). Conclusions The modifications that reach a statistical significance are explained by the readjustment of the ECT-U, with no clinical significance. With the appropriate measures, neither m-ECT nor i-ECT were discontinued. Thus we maintained adequate patient management. Disclosure No significant relationships.

Keywords

• Electroconvulsive therapy
• COVID-19
• lockdown