Effects of Lidocaine on the Acute Hemodynamic Response to Electroconvulsive Therapy

ABSTRACT Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been used widely to treat psychiatric disease. ECT under anesthesia is associated with hypertension and tachycardia. The cardiovascular effects of ECT were studied after per-treatment of 100 patients with lidocaine 1.5 mg/Kg (experimental group) and saline solution (control), using a double-blind, randomized clinical trial study. There were no significant difference between two groups with respect to demographic data. Although, arterial blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory rate increased significantly in all patients after ECT (P<0.05). Pre-treatment with lidocaine significantly reduced the hemodynamic response to ECT compared with saline solution (P<0.05). There wasn't significant difference between two groups in seizure duration. This study indicated that 1/5 mg/kg of lidocaine I.V. was an effective pre-treatment regimen for preventing the acute hyperdynamic response to ECT.