OBJECTIVE: To inform obstetricians and psychiatrists about the safety of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) administration during pregnancy and to reconcile conflicting recommendations concerning this treatment.
METHODS: A systematically conducted overview was undertaken on the safety of ECT during pregnancy. The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE/PubMed, PsycINFO, and Ovid were independently searched by 2 of the authors from January 2015 to March 2017 using the following search terms: electroconvulsive therapy, ECT, and electroshock combined with pregnancy and reviews. Articles were reviewed and critically appraised using components of the PRISMA and AMSTAR systematic review assessment tools.
RESULTS: Of the 9 articles that were identified, 5 publications of varying methodological quality met inclusion criteria and involved a range of 32 to 339 patients. The most common problems that occurred in association with ECT were fetal arrhythmia, fetal bradycardia, premature birth, developmental delay, abdominal pain, uterine contraction, vaginal bleeding, placental abruption, and threatened abortion. The number of fetal deaths in each of the reviews ranged from 2 to 12. The authors of 1 of the 5 reviews recommended that ECT only be used as a last resort, whereas the authors of the other reviews took the stance that the administration of ECT during pregnancy was relatively safe. Differences in recommendations among reviews were in part due to inclusion criteria and how adverse events were attributed to ECT.
CONCLUSIONS: Our overview supports the conclusion, which has also been endorsed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Psychiatric Association, that administration of ECT during pregnancy is relatively safe. Conclusions about safety, however, will become better established with the availability of more data.
Síntesis amplia/ Revisión panorámica de revisiones sistemáticas
BACKGROUND: Four systematic reviews have examined the safety of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in pregnancy. These have varied widely in methods, findings, and conclusions.
METHODS: We compared these reviews with regard to search strategy, study selection criteria, total number of studies identified, total number of patients included, findings related to safety and adverse events, and interpretation of results.
RESULTS: The number of studies (number of cases) included in the reviews ranged from 16 (n = 300) to 67 (n = 169) with only one review stating reasons for exclusion of nonselected studies. We provide comparisons about how the reviews described patient characteristics, illness characteristics, ECT characteristics, confounder characteristics, and outcome characteristics; there was wide variation in these regards. We list adverse outcomes that were identified by some but not other reviews. We provide a detailed breakdown of the adverse maternal and fetal outcomes identified in each review. Finally, we examine how different reviews interpreted their findings; whereas some reviews provided reasons for ruling out ECT as an explanation for an adverse outcome, one review adopted the stance that all adverse outcomes were potentially ECT-related.
CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-review provides readers with comparative information on the strengths and limitations of the 4 systematic reviews, their findings, and their conclusions. It can assist with clinical decision making on the use of ECT in pregnancy by providing a more complete description of the available literature.
Muchos de los fármacos que se utilizan para tratar patologías psiquiátricas tienen ciertas restricciones o incluso se encuentran contraindicados durante el embarazo, lo cual restringe las opciones terapéuticas en este grupo de pacientes. La terapia electroconvulsiva constituye una alternativa efectiva, sin embargo, existe controversia sobre su seguridad. Utilizando la base de datos Epistemonikos, la cual es mantenida mediante búsquedas en múltiples bases de datos, se identificaron cinco revisiones sistemáticas que incluyen 82 estudios describiendo series de casos o casos individuales. Se extrajeron los datos de las revisiones identificadas y se construyeron tablas de resumen de los resultados utilizando el método GRADE. Se concluye que no está claro cuáles son los riesgos asociados a la terapia electroconvulsiva durante el embarazo, dada la baja certeza que provee la evidencia. Asimismo, revisiones sistemáticas y guías clínicas internacionales existentes difieren en sus conclusiones y recomendaciones.
To inform obstetricians and psychiatrists about the safety of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) administration during pregnancy and to reconcile conflicting recommendations concerning this treatment.
METHODS:
A systematically conducted overview was undertaken on the safety of ECT during pregnancy. The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE/PubMed, PsycINFO, and Ovid were independently searched by 2 of the authors from January 2015 to March 2017 using the following search terms: electroconvulsive therapy, ECT, and electroshock combined with pregnancy and reviews. Articles were reviewed and critically appraised using components of the PRISMA and AMSTAR systematic review assessment tools.
RESULTS:
Of the 9 articles that were identified, 5 publications of varying methodological quality met inclusion criteria and involved a range of 32 to 339 patients. The most common problems that occurred in association with ECT were fetal arrhythmia, fetal bradycardia, premature birth, developmental delay, abdominal pain, uterine contraction, vaginal bleeding, placental abruption, and threatened abortion. The number of fetal deaths in each of the reviews ranged from 2 to 12. The authors of 1 of the 5 reviews recommended that ECT only be used as a last resort, whereas the authors of the other reviews took the stance that the administration of ECT during pregnancy was relatively safe. Differences in recommendations among reviews were in part due to inclusion criteria and how adverse events were attributed to ECT.
CONCLUSIONS:
Our overview supports the conclusion, which has also been endorsed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Psychiatric Association, that administration of ECT during pregnancy is relatively safe. Conclusions about safety, however, will become better established with the availability of more data.
