What are the side effects of ECT?

As with any treatment, ECT can have side effects.

Side effects are usually mild and short term but can sometimes be more severe and potentially long-lasting.
The risk of side effects is slightly increased if higher doses of stimulating pulses are needed, if you are a woman or if you are elderly.

If you experience side effects during a course of ECT, the treatment can be adjusted.

 

Short-term side effects

• Immediately after ECT, you may experience:
• Headaches
• Aching in the muscles and/or jaw tiredness while the effects of the anaesthetic wear off
• Confusion, particularly if you are elderly. This usually wears off after 30 minutes
• Sickness or nausea

A nurse will be with you while you wake up after ECT. They can also give you simple pain relief, like paracetamol.

Up to 40% of patients can have temporary memory problems while they are having ECT. For example, they may forget conversations with visitors during this time.

However, before having ECT about a fifth (17%) of people say that their memory was already bad enough to be causing them problems. It is difficult to separate out the effects ECT has on memory from the effects that the illnesses it is treating has on memory.

In most people, memory difficulties clear within two months of the last treatment and do not cause problems or distress.

All medical procedures carry risk. If the anaesthetist considers it unsafe to give you an anaesthetic, you will not be able to have ECT.

People who have been admitted to hospital because of depression are less likely to die after having ECT than if they do not have ECT. This could be because ECT helps people recover, or because people who are given ECT receive closer medical attention.

Very rarely, ECT can trigger a prolonged fit. This would be immediately treated by the medical staff present.

 

Long-term side effects

The extent of long-term side effects is controversial.

Rigorous scientific research has not found any evidence of physical brain damage in patients who have had ECT. There is no increased risk of epilepsy, stroke or dementia after ECT.

The most serious potential long-term side effect of ECT is that you might forget events from your past. A small number of patients report gaps in their memory about events in their life that happened before they had ECT. This tends to affect memories of events that occurred during, or shortly before, the depression started. Sometimes these memories return fully or partially, but sometimes these gaps can be permanent. Recent research suggests that 7% of people receiving unilateral ECT report some persistent memory loss 12 months after ECT.