Comparison of the effect of low dose ketamine plus dexmedetomidine vs low dose ketamine plus midazolam on hemodynamic changes and pain in electroconvulsive therapy

Background: Currently, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is used as an effective treatment method in many psychiatric disorders. The basis of a successful electroshock session is to create a seizure with the precise intensity, quality and duration. In addition to the appropriate method of shock induction, appropriate anesthesia methods should be used to cause such seizures. The present study compared a combination of low-dose ketamine and dexmedetomidine (Ketodex) with a combination of low-dose ketamine and midazolam (Ketomid) on hemodynamic changes in electroshocks applied to patients referred from the psychiatric ward. Methodology: This study was a randomized triple-blind clinical trial performed after obtaining permission from the Medical Ethics Committee of the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. For this purpose, 70 patients were selected for electroshock therapy and randomly distributed into two groups of 35 people. In the first group, 0.04 mg/kg midazolam was combined with ketamine 0.1 mg/kg and in the second group, 0.5 & mu;g/kg dexmedetomidine with 0.1 mg/kg ketamine. The patients were placed under complete cardiovascular monitoring. Hemodynamic changes of patients were measured and recorded before injection, after injection, after shock, and at 5 and 10 min after the end of seizures. Results: In this study, 70 patients who were candidates for receiving ECT were equally divided into two groups of 35: one group received a mixture of Ketodex and the second group a combination of Ketomid. The two study groups showed no significant difference in terms of systolic pressure (P = 0.883), diastolic (P = 0.443), mean arterial pressure (P = 0.443), oxygen saturation (P = 0.018), and heart rate (P = 0.286). Complications such as headache, muscular pain (P = 0.01), bradycardia, nausea and vomiting were reported in the dexmedetomidine and ketamine groups. Conclusion: Our study showed that although systolic, diastolic and mean arterial blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen saturation were significantly reduced in both study groups, no significant difference was observed between the two groups in terms of hemodynamic changes and neither drug group in our study population was different from the other in terms of these parameters. In addition, neither option was superior to the other. However, due to the fact that complications such as headache, muscular pain, bradycardia, nausea and vomiting were reported in the dexmedetomidine and ketamine groups, the combination of midazolam and ketamine appeared to be a more appropriate combination in patients undergoing electroconvulsive therapy.