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Risks
By Mayo Clinic staffAlthough electroconvulsive therapy is generally safe, there are known risks and side effects. These include:
- Cognitive impairment. Immediately after an ECT treatment, you may experience a period of confusion. You may not know where you are or why you're there. This impairment in your thought process (cognition) generally lasts from a few minutes to several hours. However, the more ECT treatments you have, the longer confusion may last. Occasionally, the confusion may last several days. It typically goes away when the course of treatment is over.
- Memory loss. ECT can affect memory in several ways. You may have trouble remembering events that occurred before treatment began, a condition known as retrograde amnesia. For most, retrograde amnesia obscures memory of the weeks or months leading up to treatment, although some people do have problems with memories from years previous, as well. You may also have trouble recalling events that occurred during the weeks of your treatment. And some people have trouble with memory of events that occur even after ECT has stopped. These memory problems usually improve within a couple of months. Though it does happen, permanent memory loss is relatively rare.
- Medical complications. As with any type of medical procedure, especially one in which anesthesia is used, there are risks of medical complications. The pre-ECT medical evaluation helps identify medical conditions that may put you at increased risk of complications during ECT, enabling doctors to take special precautions. During ECT, heart rate and blood pressure increase, and in rare cases, that can lead to serious heart problems. ECT also carries a very small risk of death, about the same as with other procedures in which anesthesia is used.
- Physical issues. On the days you have an ECT treatment, you may experience nausea, vomiting, headache, muscle ache or jaw pain. These are common and generally can be treated effectively with medications.
