Electroconvulsive Therapy in a Geriatric Heart Transplant Patient

CASE PRESENTATION
Mrs. K is a 77-year-old woman with multiple medical problems, including insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, peripheral vascular disease, peptic ulcer disease, and hypertension. Her cardiac history is significant for idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy that developed at the age of 55 years, leading to severe congestive heart failure (CHF). After a deteriorating course, Mrs. K underwent a heart transplant in 1991. She has a long but poorly described history of mental illness. She was hospitalized in the 1950s for a “nervous breakdown,” although no records were avail...