Association between pulse width and health-related quality of life after electroconvulsive therapy in patients with...

To examine the association between pulse width and HRQoL measured within one week after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and at six-month follow-up in patients with unipolar or bipolar depression.

This was an observational register study using data from the Swedish National Quality Registry for ECT (2011-2019). Inclusion criteria were: age ≥18 years; index treatment for unipolar/bipolar depression; unilateral electrode placement; information on pulse width; EQ-5D measurements before and after ECT. Multiple linear regressions were performed to investigate the association between pulse width (<0.5 ms; 0.5 ms; >0.5 ms) and HRQoL (EQ-5D-3L index; EQ VAS) one week after ECT (primary outcome) and six months after ECT (secondary outcome).

The sample included 5,046 patients with unipolar (82%) or bipolar (18%) depression. At first ECT session, 741 patients (14.7%) had pulse width <0.5 ms, 3,639 (72.1%) had 0.5 ms, and 666 (13.2%) had >0.5 ms. There were no statistically significant associations between pulse width and HRQoL one week after ECT. In the subsample of patients with an EQ-5D index recorded six months after ECT (n = 730), patients receiving 0.5 ms had significantly lower HRQoL (-0.089) compared to <0.5 ms, after adjusting for demographic and clinical characteristics (p = .011). The corresponding analysis for EQ VAS did not show any statistically significant associations.

No robust associations were observed between pulse width and HRQoL after ECT. On average, significant improvements in HRQoL were observed one week and six months after ECT for patients with unipolar or bipolar disease, independent of the pulse width received.