A progress in electroconvulsive therapy: the non-barbiturate anesthaetic drug etomidate.

Forty-six female patients (19-72 years) requiring ECT for psychiatric indications received 0.5 mg atropine, followed by 0.1-0.4 mg/kg bodyweight of etomidate. Subsequently 50 mg of suxamethonium were injected and ECT was applied. The etomidate-ECT combination proved very suitable and was well tolerated.