Back to Journals » Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment » Volume 9

Balance and gait in older electroconvulsive therapy recipients: a pilot study

Authors Plakiotis C, Barson F, Vengadasalam B, Haines TP, O'Connor DW

Received 11 January 2013

Accepted for publication 4 March 2013

Published 5 June 2013 Volume 2013:9 Pages 805—812

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S42628

Checked for plagiarism Yes

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 2



Chris Plakiotis,1,2 Fay Barson,2 Bharathi Vengadasalam,3 Terry P Haines,4 Daniel W O'Connor1,2

1School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; 2MonashHealth, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; 3Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; 4Allied Health Research Unit, Monash University and MonashHealth, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Background: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is commonly used to treat depression in older adults. Despite its efficacy in this regard, an associated increase in the risk of falls in this population is a downside of treatment. ECT research has focused on the incidence of falls, but its effect on balance and gait – intrinsic factors in instability and falls – has not been studied. Our aim was to examine changes in balance and gait among older adults before and after a single ECT session and explore the effect of patient-related and treatment factors on any changes found.
Methods: Participants were 21 older adults requiring ECT for depression in public psychiatric services. Patients with clinically overt mobility problems (impairing test participation or increasing the risk of falls) were excluded. Balance and gait testing 1 hour pre-ECT and 1, 2 and 3 hours post-ECT included: (1) steady standing test; (2) perturbation of standing balance by self-initiated movements; (3) perturbation of standing balance by an external perturbation; and (4) timed up and go test.
Results: No deterioration in test performance was found, using one-way repeated measures analysis of variance.
Conclusion: Balance and gait did not deteriorate immediately after ECT. Exclusion of participants with clinically overt mobility problems and falls being better attributable to factors unrelated to balance and gait (such as post-ECT confusion) may account for our findings. This research does not repudiate the occurrence of ECT-related falls but calls into question the utility of introducing routine balance and gait assessment among older ECT recipients without pre-existing mobility problems as a means of preventing them.

Keywords: electroconvulsive therapy, depression, balance, gait, falls, aged

Creative Commons License © 2013 The Author(s). This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License. By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.