ECT IN MENTALLY RETARDED SUBJECTS WITH PSYCHIATRIC ILLNESS

The mentally retarded subjects show a much higher prevalence of full range of psychiatric disorders than the non-retarded population. Whereas the role of psychotropic drugs in such patients is well discussed, the reports on the use of ECT are scarce. Many psychiatrists dealing with the mentally retarded psychiatric patients are reluctant to consider ECT due to lack of adequate experience. We report five mentally retarded patients with different psychiatric disorders who were successfully treated with ECT after failing adequate trials of pharmacotherapy. No disproportionately higher adverse events on account of mental retardation were observed. ECT need to be favorably considered in mentally retarded persons with psychiatric morbidity especially when treatment with psychotropic drugs either fail or is intolerable.