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Implementing the Royal College of Psychiatrists' guidelines for the practice of electroconvulsive therapy

Airedale General Hospital, West Yorkshire (Ingrow Community Mental Health Team, 2000 South Street, Keighley, West Yorkshire BD21 1BB)

John Rigby, Medical Director

Hesketh Centre, Southport, Merseyside

Richard Barnes, Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry

Ormskirk General Hospital, Lancashire

AIMS AND METHOD

To implement the Royal College of Psychiatrists' guidelines for the practice of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and measure the impact of such implementation on the quality of treatment.

Treatment of ECT for periods of six months before and after implementation of the guidelines were studied. The effect on producing adequate treatments and the actions taken by the administrating doctor were noted.

RESULTS

Once the guidelines were in place there was a slight improvement in the proportion of treatments considered therapeutic and the doctor was more likely to take appropriate action following an inadequate treatment.

However, it was also clear that despite the guidelines being available they were not followed in a significant number of instances.

CONCLUSIONS

Implementation of the guidelines is not easy and there needs to be considerable effort to ensure they are used. When they are followed there is an improvement in the practice of ECT.