Does Electroconvulsive Therapy Prevent Suicide?

To examine the issue of whether or not electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) protects against suicidal death, we followed a complete population of 1,494 adult hospitalized psychiatric patients for 5-7 years. During that time there were 76 deaths, of which 16 or 21% were by suicide. Cause of death was not significantly related to age, gender, or research diagnosis. Patients who committed suicide were more apt to have received ECT than those who died from other causes, but this difference was not significant. A control group of living patients matched for age, sex, and diagnosis had very similar exposures to ECT, which further indicates that ECT does not influence long-term survival. These findings combined with a close examination of the literature do not support the commonly held belief that ECT exerts long-range protective effects against suicide.