Comparative Study of the Clonidin and Propranolol Effect in the Prevention of Hemodynamic Changes after Electroconvulsive Therapy

Introduction & ECT is an inevitable therapy for many of psychiatric patients. During ECT severe hemodynamic changes occur which may cause dangerous cardiovascular complications especially in elderly patients with cardiac disease and may lead to arrhythmia,ischemia and myocardial infarction. The purpose of this study was to show the effect of clonidin and propranolol on the prevention of hemodynamic changes following the ECT. This study was a controlled double blind clinical trial which was carried out on 31 patients ASA I, II hospitalized in psychiatry ward of Hamadan Sina hospital who were in need of ECT. In order to increase the accuracy of the study the personal factors on the drug metabolism were omitted and the chosen patients were given ECT three times separately with the interval of 48 hours. Two hours before every ECT clonidin (0.2 mg), propranolol (40 mg) and placebo (vitamin c) were administered and after each ECT the hemodynamic parameters including systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, rate pressure product and ECG were measured at certain intervals and recorded on information forms and then analyzed by SPSS 9 soft ware. The result of this study showed that the average changes of hemodynamic parameters in different times occurred in all groups significantly(p<0.001). Following ECT, arrhythmia in control group has been plentiful in comparison with the other two groups, and the changes were statistically meaningful (p=0.001). We concluded that the modifying hemodynamic changes and decrease of arrhythmia taking the drugs in comparison with placebo have been more effective and of the two drugs, propranolol has been more effective on the prevention of hemodynamic changes after ECT.