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Introduction: The influence of age and gender in the electrical charge delivered in a given population was analysed using an electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) clinical database., Material and Method: An observational, prospective, longitudinal study with descriptive analysis was performed using data from a database that included total bilateral frontotemporal ECT carried out with a Mecta spECTrum 5000Q ® in our hospital over 6 years. From 2006 to 2012, a total of 4,337 ECT were performed on 187 patients. Linear regression using mixed effects analysis was weighted by the inverse of the number of ECT performed on each patient per year of treatment., Results: The results indicate that age is related with changes in the required charge (P=.031), as such that the older the age a higher charge is needed. Gender is also associated with changes in charge (P=.014), with women requiring less charge than men, a mean of 87.3mC less. When the effects of age and gender are included in the same model, both are significant (P=.0080 and P=.0041). Thus, for the same age, women require 99.0mC less charge than men, and in both genders the charge increases by 2.3mC per year., Conclusions: From our study, it is concluded that the effect of age on the dosage of the electrical charge is even more significant when related to gender. It would be of interest to promote the systematic collection of data for a better understanding and application of the technique., (Copyright © 2015 SEP y SEPB. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Unlabelled: Bipolar disorder is a cyclic and polymorphic disease. Patients may show manic, hipomanic, depressive or mixed symptoms, and they may be in partial or complete remission. For this reason, the assessment of the course, severity and outcome of the disorder is very complex. Most of the available psychometric instruments have been designed for the assessment of acute episodes of specific polarity., Methods: We present the modified version of the Clinical Global Impression for Bipolar Disorder (CGI-BP-M) a condensed version of the CGI-BP, which is also an adaptation of the CGI for bipolar patients., Results: The CGI-BP-M takes only a few minutes to complete, and it has proved to be useful in the assessment of the short and long-term efficacy of several treatments such as olanzapine and quetiapine. Significant improvements in several subescales of the CGI-BP-M after treatment with these compounds are shown., Conclusions: The CGI-BP-M, a user-friendly scale for the assessment of manic, hypomanic, depressive or mixed symptoms, and long-term outcome of bipolar disorder, is a useful tool for the assessment of the efficacy of several treatments.