Grant: Project Grant

Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that affects 1% of Canadians. Antipsychotic medications can alleviate the symptoms of schizophrenia for many individuals. Unfortunately, many individuals with schizophrenia do not respond fully to antipsychotic medications. In these cases, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) may be offered to alleviate symptoms of this serious illness. While ECT has demonstrated efficacy for reducing symptoms of schizophrenia; for rare, but serious events such as hospitalization, suicidal behaviour, or suicide death, it is unknown if ECT reduces the risk of these outcomes. We have previously demonstrated amongst individuals with depression the medical safety and psychiatric effectiveness of ECT using population-level administrative health data. We propose the first large-scale and comprehensive study of ECT in schizophrenia to understand the association of ECT with rare but serious events. This information will be used to inform the decision-making process for individuals with schizophrenia and their families who may be considering ECT treatment.