Comparison of Atropine with Glycopyrrolate for Use in ECT.

The occurrence of undesirable events during the postictal electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) period was retrospectively compared between 29 patients who had received glycopyrrolate premedication 0.002 mg/lb i.v. and 25 patients who had received atropine 1.0 mg i.m. A separate comparison was made for 14 patients who had received ECTs with each of these premedications. A total of 952 ECTs were reviewed. In both comparisons supraventricular tachycardia was more common with atropine (p <.0001 with each), after approximately 13% of ECTs. Otherwise, postictal events with the two agents were indistinguishable; specifically, bradycardia and nausea were not more frequent with glycopyrrolate.