Am J Psychiatry 1990; 147:579-585
Copyright © 1990 by American Psychiatric Association
Caffeine augmentation of ECT
CE Coffey, GS Figiel, RD Weiner and WB Saunders
Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710.
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study of 40
depressed inpatients, the authors compared two techniques for maintaining
seizure duration during pulse unilateral ECT: pretreatment with intravenous
caffeine versus electrical stimulus intensity dosing. Both techniques
effectively maintained seizure duration, but with caffeine this was
accomplished without any increase in mean stimulus intensity over the
course of ECT. There were no differences between the two techniques in
therapeutic outcome or cognitive side effects from ECT, and caffeine
pretreatment was well tolerated. The authors discuss the clinical and
research implications of these findings with respect to strategies for
maintaining seizure duration during ECT.
