Electroconvulsive therapy during high-risk pregnancy

Abstract

Pregnancy increases the risk of injury associated with mental illness. The varieties of malnutrition, substance abuse, and aggression that may accompany mental illness can injure the unborn child in more severe ways than the patient herself. Dangers associated with illness-related behavior can outweight the risks of pharmacotherapy, but no psychotropic drug is approved for use during pregnancy. Failure to produce a prompt or lasting remission of psychiatric symptoms also is a significant possibility with medication. The morbidity from continued illness and the incompletely described adverse effects of psychotropic drugs increases the attractiveness of ECT for severely depressed pregnant patients, especially with associated high-risk conditions. This paper discusses physiologic changes occurring during pregnancy and ECT and reviews contemporary monitors of maternal and fetal well-being. Guidelines are suggested for ECT during regular and high-risk pregnancies. The authors conclude that using additional precautions with high-risk pregnant patients permits ECT to be given with relative safety; medical and obstetric risk factors need not prevent its use.