The Incidence and Predictors of Headache and Myalgia in Patients After Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a safe and effective mode of therapy for a wide variety of psychiatric disorders. However, it is associated with some disturbing side effects, such as nausea and vomiting, dental and tongue injury, confusion, dizziness, headache, and myalgia.

The present study focused on the evaluation of myalgia and headache and their predictors after ECT.

A prospective analytical descriptive study was conducted from October 2014 to January 2015, in an academic hospital in northern Iran. Before sampling, the study was approved by the ethics committee of Guilan University of Medical Sciences. 621 patients with psychiatric disorders who were referred to Shafa hospital enrolled in the study. They were evaluated based on a verbal rating scale (4 point scales) 6 hours after ECT, regarding headache and myalgia side effects.

6 hours after ECT, 126 patients (21.9%) reported headaches, and 56 patients (9%) reported myalgia. The presence of headache or myalgia 6 hours after ECT was not correlated to the duration of convulsion, treatment sessions, sex, or age. But myalgia at 2 hours after treatment was correlated with sex (0.04). Sex, age, duration of seizure, and treatment sessions were not predictors of headache and myalgia 6 hours after ECT (log regression, enter mode). The intensity and frequency of headaches decreased during 6 hours after ECT (P = 0.0001 and P = 0.0001, respectively), and myalgia frequency decreased (P = 0.062) but the intensity increased (P = 0.87).

The results of the present study demonstrate that headache after ECT procedures was more common than myalgia, but it was mild, tolerable, and decreased within 6 hours of the treatment. It is also notable that we did not found any predictors for post-ECT headache and myalgia.