NCT04828226CompletedPhase 4
Clonidine to Prevent Delirium After Electroconvulsive Therapy.
Clonidine to Prevent Postictal Delirium After ElectroConvulsive Therapy: a Randomised, Placebo-controlled, Triple-blind, Single-centre Trial.
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Last updated 19 May 2026
Brief summary (registry, in English)
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a highly effective treatment for some psychiatric disorders like major depressive or bipolar disorder, but may lead to agitation and delirium after the procedure in up to 65% of patients. This can have negative side effects and be dangerous for patient and attending staff. Clonidine, a central-acting alpha2-receptor agonist, is an approved antihypertensive medication with known sedative side effects. Clonidine's newer but more expensive successor, dexmedetomidine, has recently shown its potential to reduce this kind of delirium. The investigators therefore hypothesise that pre-treatment with 2 mcg/kg clonidine prior to electroconvulsive therapy will significantly reduce the incidence of postictal delirium. This potentially makes a highly efficient treatment for patients with otherwise refractory psychiatric illness safer and more accessible.
- Status (registry)
- Completed
- Phase (registry)
- Phase 4
- Study type
- Interventional
- Enrollment
- 130 (actual)
- First submitted
- 30 Mar 2021
- Start date
- 27 Apr 2021
- Primary completion date
- 16 May 2026
- Lead sponsor
- Insel Gruppe AG, University Hospital Bern
- Diseases
- Depression, Bipolar disorder
- NCT number
- NCT04828226
What you commit to
- Study type: Interventional · Phase 4
- Participants enrolled: 130
- From 27 Apr 2021 to the primary completion date, 16 May 2026
- 1 site in 1 country
- Visits and tests: ask the trial team, the registry does not list them
Built from the registry fields of ClinicalTrials.gov. It describes the study, not your situation.
Who cannot take part
Copied verbatim from ClinicalTrials.gov and grouped by topic. Only the trial team decides who can take part.
Prior treatment
- Previous enrolment into the current study;
- Participation in another study with investigational drug within the 30 days preceding and during the present study;
Other illness
- Contraindications to the study drug, e. g. known allergy or hypersensitivity, hypotension, bradycardia, higher grade atrioventricular block;
- On regular Clonidine for another indication (e.g. arterial hypertension)
Other
- Patients undergoing emergency ECT;
- Unable to consent (incapable of judgment, next-of-kin consent necessary or under tutelage);
- Inability to follow the procedures of the study, e. g. due to language barrier;
- Enrolment of the investigator, his/her family members, employees and other dependent persons.
- Women who are pregnant or breast feeding;
- Intention to become pregnant during the course of the study;
- Lack of safe contraception, defined as: Female participants of childbearing potential, not using and not willing to continue using a medically reliable method of contraception for the entire study duration (and 4 weeks thereafter), such as oral, injectable, or implantable contraceptives, or intrauterine contraceptive devices, or who are not using any other method considered sufficiently reliable by the investigator in individual cases. Female participants who are surgically sterilised / hysterectomised or post-menopausal for longer than 2 years are not considered as being of child bearing potential.
Who the study is looking for
- Aged 18 and more;
- Scheduled for an elective series of ambulatory ECT sessions at the University Hospital Bern;
- Informed Consent as documented by signature (Appendix Informed Consent Form).
Age in the registry: 18 years to - · Sex: All · Does not accept healthy volunteers
Sites (1)
Sites in registry order. Pick your city on the disease page to sort them by distance.
| Site | City | Country | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Anaesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Bern | Switzerland | Unknown status |
This page is information, not medical advice. Discuss any trial with your doctor.