In 1938 Cerletti described a method of producing convulsions by electricity and began its use the treatment of schizophrenias. In avoider to avoid fractures or dislocation and to diminish the risk,
convulsion may be modified by means of drugs which inhibit the action of acetylcholine at neuromuscular junctions and often the muscular contractions combining ultra short acting barbiturate especially
thiopental sodium. Since ultra short acting barbiturat, like thiopental, require postanesthesia supervision of the patient for up to an hour, the recentlyintroduced ultrashort-acting nonbarbiturate anesthetic agent, propanidid, was investigated for comparison with thiopental sodium.
One hundred psychiatric patients under the diagnosis of involutional melancholia, manic depressive psychosis, schizophrenia and neurotic ´depression, divided into two equal groups, were subjected to electroconvulsive therapy by thiopental- succinylcholine (Group 1) and propanidid-succinyl choline (Group 2).
In our study, there were no definite change in blood pressure and heart rate after electroconvulsive therapy in both group.
Duration of apnea in Group 2 averaged 63 seconds longer than in Group 1, but awakening and ambulation averaged 5 minutes and 40 minutes shorter than in Group 1.
Complications after E.C. T. were minimal and not significant defferent between two groups.
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