Blood pressure reduction with ECT response

A group of 48 male inpatients who responded to electroconvulsive therapy for major depression showed decreases in resting blood pressure along the course of treatment. Decreases occurred in both systolic (mean +/- SD = 8.0 +/- 17.3 mm Hg, p = .0025) and diastolic (7.4 +/- 13.2 mm Hg, p = .00030) pressures. Systolic pressure decreased by at least 20 mm Hg in 15 patients. These findings are consistent with reports that depressives show elevated plasma catecholamine levels, and that, with response to tricyclic antidepressants, their blood pressures decrease. Depression-associated blood pressure elevation might contribute to the excessive cardiac mortality of depressives; conversely, antidepressant treatment might control hypertension in some depressives.