Fever After ECT: New Case Report From Turkey

 Out on Pubmed, from authors in Turkey, is this case report:

Transient Fever Response After ECT in a Patient with Catatonic Schizophrenia: A Case Report.

Alp A, Doğan MK, Eroğlu EÖ, Yildiz Mİ, Gürel ŞC, Özer S.Turk Psikiyatri Derg. 2024 Spring;35(1):78-82. doi: 10.5080/u26972.PMID: 38556940 English, Turkish.

The abstract is copied below:

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective and safe treatment method for many psychiatric disorders. In general medical practice, ECT may cause side effects as most other treatment methods do. Headache, myalgia, nausea, vomiting, confusion, anterograde amnesia are common side effects of electroconvulsive therapy. Fever; in addition to general medical conditions such as infection, malignancy, connective tissue diseases, drug treatments, malignant hyperthermia, convulsions, it can also occur due to conditions such as neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS), serotonin syndrome, catatonia, malignant catatonia, which are frequently encountered in psychiatry clinics. In the literature, transient fever response due to electroconvulsive therapy application have been described, albeit rarely. Although there are many proposed mechanisms for the emergence of a fever response, regardless of its cause, it is still not understood why some fever responses occur. In this article, we present the differential diagnosis of the fever response, possible causes, and the mechanisms that may reveal the secondary fever response to electroconvulsive therapy in a case with a diagnosis of catatonic schizophrenia, who developed a fever response during electroconvulsive therapy sessions and no fever response was observed at times other than electroconvulsive therapy sessions. In this case, postictal benign fever response associated with electroconvulsive therapy was considered after excluding other medical conditions that may cause a fever response after electroconvulsive therapy. Keywords: ECT, Fever, Catatonia, NMS.

The case report is here.

And from the text:

Despite its flaws (including sparse details of the ECT and clinical response), this case report adds to the small literature about the rare occurrence of benign, transient fever after ECT. The authors emphasize the most important point, namely to carefully rule out any infectious etiology. The literature review of similar cases seems pretty good.

Kudos to our Turkish colleagues for adding their experience to the ECT literature.