PT634. Alleviation of neuropathic pain treated with opioid by electroconvulsive therapy Free

Abstract

There are a number of reports which indicate electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has an analgesic effect on neuropathic pain. Some of them reported that a demanded amount of opioid to alleviate their pain was decreased after ECT. But there is no report that examines the relationship between the analgesic effect of ECT and an amount of opioid administered at ECT.

We investigated the charts of eleven neuropathic pain patients who received ECT at our institute to alleviate their pain from March, 2003 to March, 2012 with using opioid. We searched in their charts for their illnesses which caused their pain; currently treated psychiatric diseases; body weights; ages of onsets; ages of ECT; past experiences of ECT; medications to alleviate pain including opioid, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and cycloxygenase; and scores on Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) before/after ECT.

We examined their prescriptions, the latest one before and the earliest one after ECT, and the averaged daily doses of opioid were calculated according to them. These doses were converted into the doses of equianalgesic oral morphine to compare each other.

Interestingly, there is a strong positive correlation between the ratios of decrements of NRS to the scores before ECT and the doses of opioids administered before ECT. This result suggests that ECT and opioid may complementarily alleviate on neuropathic pain.