We sought to obtain an overview of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) practice in Psychiatry Clinic of Derince Research and Training Hospital which has 25 inbeds and is a new kind of governmental administration for new health policy of Turkey.

From January 2011 to October 2012, a form enquiring about evaluation of ECT was filled retrospectively.

The total number of patients, admitted for psychiatry during the survey period was 77012. A total of 82 patients (10.06% among inpatients and 0.106% in all psychiatric admissions) received 514 sessions of ECT from 815 psychiatric inpatients. Seven patients had multiple hospitalizations. Patients with severe depressive episode with/without psychotic symptoms (include bipolar affective disorder current episode severe depression) received ECT most frequently (54.9%), followed by patients with bipolar affective disorder, current episode manic with/without psychotic symptoms (19.5%), schizophrenia (18.3%), and schizoaffective disorders (3.7%) respectively. All of the patients were reported to have insufficient response to medication and 19 patients had suicidalty (23.1%). There were no pregnant patients. All patients received modified ECT. There were no ECT-related deaths or injuries. 5 (6%) patients needed intervention for bradicardia and one patient had hypersensitivity to anesthetic medication during the survey.

The majority of patients who received ECT were diagnosed with severe depression with/without psychotic symptoms. Suicidalty and insufficient response to medication had an important role at decision of ECT. These results suggest that ECT is still safe and assumes an important role in daily practice of inpatient clinics.