TY - JOUR AU - Khan, Sana AU - Qayyum, Rashid AU - Buland, Khalid AU - Ujala, Mehwish AU - Zubair, Usama Bin PY - 2019/10/23 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - ROLE OF PERIOPERATIVE ANALGESIA WITH ACETAMINOPHEN IN REDUCING PAIN FOLLOWING ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY JF - Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal JA - PAFMJ VL - 69 IS - 5 SE - Original Articles DO - UR - https://pafmj.org/PAFMJ/article/view/3392 SP - 943-48 AB - <p><strong>Objective:</strong> To assess the efficacy of perioperative analgesia with acetaminophen in reducing the occurrence and severity of post-ECT pain.</p><p><strong>Study Design:</strong> Quasi experimental study.</p><p><strong>Study Place and Duration:</strong> Tertiary care mental health facility at Rawalpindi, Jun to Nov 2018.</p><p><strong>Methodology:</strong> Patients of all age groups and either gender for whom elective ECT was recommended during the study time period were included in the study. Acetaminophen (1g/100ml) and placebo (100ml) infusions were infused according to randomized sequence during ECT session. Study participants were assessed for presence and severity of pain i.e. headache and/or myalgia, two hours before and after ECT by using visual analog scale (VAS).</p><p><strong>Results:</strong> A sum of 146 study participants were randomized to either receive intervention (Group A) or placebo (Group B), both the groups comprised of 73 participants each. The frequency of post-ECT headache and myalgia in group A, who received acetaminophen infusion, was 8.2% and 2.7% respectively as compared to placebo group B where incidence of post-ECT headache and myalgia was reported to be 24.7% and 10.9% respectively (8.2% vs 24.7%, p 0.013 and 2.7% vs 10.9%, p 0.03 respectively). Uni-variate analysis showed that participants in group A were 72.6% less likely to develop post-ECT headache (OR 0.27, 95% CI 0.11-0.73, p 0.007), and 55% less likely to develop post-ECT myalgia (OR 0.45, 95% CI 0.21-0.80, p 0.01) than participants in group B.</p><p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> Acetaminophen has been found effective in reducing the incidence and severity of headache and myalgia following electroconvulsive therapy.</p> ER -