ECT and Urinary Retention: New Study From The Mayo Clinic

Out on PubMed, from authors at the Mayo Clinic, is this "research letter":


Urinary Retention Following Electro-Convulsive Therapy Under General Mask Anesthesia.

Stephenson AA, Abel MD, Sprung J, Morgan RJ 3rd, Schroeder DR, Weingarten TN.Can J Psychiatry. 2024 Aug 21:7067437241271738. doi: 10.1177/07067437241271738. Online ahead of print.PMID: 39166343 


 The article is here.

And here:





This is a well conducted retrospective chart review of about 10,000 ECT treatments at the Mayo Clinic. Not surprisingly, post-ECT urinary retention is associated with anticholinergic use and older age. 
My experience is that use of anticholinergic medication (either for preventing bradycardia or decreasing airway secretions) was much more common, even frequently routine, in the past. Now, it seems to be more targeted use, which makes sense, in order to avoid urinary retention, tachycardia, and the unnecessary use of an additional medication.
(If I am reading the table correctly, there seems to be a conflation of patient "n"s with ECT treatment "n"s.)
 




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