Receipt of Electroconvulsive Therapy and Subsequent Development of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Cohort Study

• Published in: Bioelectromagnetics Vol. 43; no. 2; pp. 81 - 89
• Main Authors: Mezei, Gabor, Lau, Edmund, Pace, Nelson D., Schenk, Jamie, Kheifets, Leeka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.02.2022
• Subjects: Aged; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - epidemiology; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - therapy; Cohort analysis; Cohort Studies; Confidence intervals; electric and magnetic fields; electric current; Electroconvulsive Therapy; epidemiology; Government programs; Humans; Medicare; motor neuron disease; Motor neurone disease; Population studies; Populations; Statistical analysis; United States; United States; electric and magnetic fields; electric current; epidemiology; motor neuron disease; electroconvulsive therapy; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
• ISSN: 0197-8462; 1521-186X
• DOI: 10.1002/bem.22389

We investigated the potential relationship between receipt of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We conducted a cohort study using a sample of more than one million beneficiaries enrolled in the U.S. Medicare health insurance program from 1997 to 2017. Using time‐varying proportional hazard modeling, we compared ALS occurrence among patients diagnosed with psychiatric conditions who received ECT to ALS occurrence among patients diagnosed with psychiatric conditions but who did not receive ECT. We observed moderately increased, but imprecise, hazard ratios (HR) for ALS following ECT (HR = 1.39, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.69–2.80). A statistically significant increase in the HR of ALS was observed among those who received more than 10 ECT treatments (>10 treatments, HR = 2.24, 95% CI: 1.00–5.01), compared to those receiving no ECT, with an even stronger association observed among subjects older than 65 years (HR = 3.03, 95% CI: 1.13–8.10). No monotonic exposure‐response relationship was detected in categorical analyses. Our results provide weak support for the hypothesis that receipt of ECT increases the risk of developing ALS. Additional studies in larger populations, or in populations where ECT is more common, will be needed to refute or confirm an association between receipt of ECT and subsequent development of ALS. Bioelectromagnetics. 43:81–89, 2022. © 2021 Bioelectromagnetics Society.