An Evaluation of the Safety and Clinical Utility of Handheld ECG Technology in Psychiatry

Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and antipsychotics are drugs commonly prescribed in psychiatry, the former for dementia and the latter for acute and chronic psychotic illness. Both can cause cardiac arrhythmia therefore 12 lead ECG's are recommended before prescribing. The test is often difficult to obtain however, leading to either patients being inconvenienced or drugs prescribed without the test. There are two parts of this study, but both examine the utility of single lead ecg monitoring, one in the memory clinic and the other in inpatient psychiatry wards. The aim to to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the handheld ecg versus the 12 lead and 6 lead ecg, and whether the handheld ecg can be used to screen for ecg abnormalities that would generally lead to a caution or contra-indication for acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and anti-psychotic medication.

Patients will either be recruited from the outpatient memory clinic or in patient psychiatry wards. Following informed consent baseline demographic data will be collected, and patients will undergo a 12 lead and 6 lead ECG as well as a rhythm strip using the handheld device. Data from this point will be annonymised for future analysis. The psychiatrists ECG report will also be recorded, and a subset of patients will undergo an echocardiogram (to see what proportion of patients with psychiatric disorders have structural heart disease.)