Objectives: To assess the effect of planned readmissions on readmission risk for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)-treated patients.
Methods: A naturalistic historical study compared the readmission risk for depressed ECT-treated patients to depressed patients not treated with ECT while accounting for planned readmissions.
Results: Initial analyses revealed that ECT-treated patients were at greater risk of readmission compared to patients not treated with ECT. However, after accounting for planned readmissions, these differences became nonsignificant.
Limitations: Only readmissions to a single psychiatric hospital were examined. Therefore, these data may underestimate readmission rates.
Conclusions: Not accounting for planned readmissions may lead to overestimations of negative outcome.