Development of central diabetes insipidus following electroconvulsive therapy: results of a prospective pilot study

The objective of this study was to examine the occurrence of laboratory abnormalities and symptoms of central diabetes insipidus (CDI) in patients receiving acute electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) series.

We prospectively investigated adult psychiatric inpatients for objective and subjective evidence of CDI at baseline and after their sixth ECT.

Although participants did not report any CDI symptoms, two thirds had clinically important decreases in urine osmolality (>200 mOsm/kg), and two thirds had serum sodium increases of 5 mmol/L following exposure to ECT.

Our findings suggest that objective evidence of CDI can occur following the administration of ECT series, even in the absence of symptomatic complaints.