Cognitive Adverse Effect of Electroconvulsive Therapy: Is It Preventable? (original) (raw)
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Brain Sciences
Decades of research have consistently demonstrated the efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD), but its clinical use remains somewhat restricted because of its cognitive side effects. The aim of this systematic review is to comprehensively summarize current evidence assessing potential biomarkers of ECT-related cognitive side effects. Based on our systematic search of human studies indexed in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Knowledge, a total of 29 studies evaluating patients with MDD undergoing ECT were reviewed. Molecular biomarkers studies did not consistently identify concentration changes in plasma S-100 protein, neuron-specific enolase (NSE), or Aβ peptides significantly associated with cognitive performance after ECT. Importantly, these findings suggest that ECT-related cognitive side effects cannot be explained by mechanisms of neural cell damage. Notwithstanding, S-100b protein and Aβ40 peptide concentrations, as well as b...
Industrial Psychiatry Journal , 2019
Objectives: The objective is to evaluate the pattern of cognitive deficits after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT); to ascertain the role of various psychosocial, illness and treatment-related parameters on cognitive functions after ECT; and to evaluate the effect of donepezil on various cognitive deficits. Materials and Methods: A triple-blind randomized controlled trial was undertaken. Ninety patients undergoing ECT were included into study after due consent and institutional ethical approval. They were randomized into two groups: one using donepezil with ECT and the other using placebo with ECT. Various cognitive parameters were studied before ECT, after a course of ECT and after 4 weeks of last ECT. Findings were assessed in the light of available socialdemographic and clinical parameters and existing literature. Results: ECT was found to be an effective therapeutic modality. Immediate memory worsened over the course of ECT till after 4 weeks of ECT. Augmentation of donepezil was found useful. It sped up the improvement of general memory and working memory during ECT. Conclusion: Donepezil has therapeutic and prophylactic benefit on cognition of patients undergoing ECT over the course of treatment till 4 weeks after the ECT.
Electroconvulsive Therapy in Severe Depression: Is Amnesia a Problem?
IOSR Journal of Dental and Medical Sciences
Introduction: Depression is the leading global cause of disability and approximately, 350 million people suffer from depression worldwide. Despite the availability of numerous psychopharmacological treatments, evidence indicates that only 60-70% of persons who tolerate antidepressants will respond to first-line drug therapy for major depressive disorder. Resistance to the antidepressant medication is the main indication for ECT. However, the use of ECT remains controversial due to concerns about memory impairment in persons with depression who receive acute ECT. The present study was planned toevaluate the effectiveness of ECT in severe depression and its effect on retrograde and anterograde amnesia or any change in their level due to ECT. Materials & Methods: A total of 30 consecutive patients diagnosed with Severe Depressive Episode as per International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) Diagnostic Criteria for Research and satisfying the eligibility criteria were taken in the study after informed consent. ECT was administered as per prevailing guidelines by means of a medical model BPE-2000 giving bidirectional square wave pulse at a frequency of 20-90Hz.
Electrophysiological Correlates of the Adverse Cognitive Effects of Electroconvulsive Therapy
The Journal of ECT, 2000
Resting state, eyes closed, 19-lead EEG recordings were obtained at pre-ECT baseline and just prior to penultimate treatment and during the week following the ECT course in 59 patients with major depression. Patients had been randomized to ECT conditions that varied in electrode placement and stimulus intensity. The EEG data were submitted to power spectral analysis, and global and topographic effects were characterized for the delta and theta frequency bands. Relations between the EEG changes and scores on three cognitive measures were examined. The period of disorientation immediately following RUL ECT was associated with an accentuation of delta power in anterior frontal and temporal regions. Across the electrode placements, increased theta activity in left frontotemporal regions was associated with longer recovery of orientation. Post-ECT decrements in global cognitive status, as assessed by the modified Mini-Mental State exam, were associated with a greater increase in delta relative to theta power, globally across the cortex. The magnitude of retrograde amnesia for autobiographical events correlated with increased theta activity in left frontotemporal regions. The findings suggest that distinct neurophysiological changes subserve the therapeutic and adverse cognitive effects of ECT. Postictal disorientation and post-ECT retrograde amnesia appear to share a common physiological substrate.
The Clinical Practice of Assessing Cognitive Function in Adults Receiving Electroconvulsive Therapy
The Journal of ECT, 2016
Background: Cognition can be affected by electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Good clinical practice includes neuropsychological assessment, although this is seldom a part of routine clinical practice. It looks like a substantial part of patients fail to complete cognitive assessments. This constitutes a problem in the generalizability of published clinical research on cognitive side effects. Most studies of ECT-related cognitive adverse effects do not discuss this important issue of so-called cognitive test nonparticipants. Recent findings suggest that cognitive test nonparticipants are more severely ill, and probably more vulnerable to cognitive side effects. Objectives: To examine the feasibility of a neuropsychological test battery in daily clinical practice, in an adult population referred for ECT. Methods: We reviewed the clinical records of 84 patients referred for ECT. Demographic and clinical characteristics of those patients who were able to complete our routine cognitive testing at baseline are compared with those who could not complete the assessment. Results: From 84 ECT patients, 60 (71%) completed a pre-ECT cognitive assessment, whereas 24 (29%) did not. Patients with a unipolar depression, with psychotic symptoms, who started their treatment with a bitemporal electrode placement were more likely to be test noncompleters than test completers. Conclusions: Patients with a unipolar depression, with psychotic features, who are treated with a bitemporal electrode placement, have a higher likelihood of not completing a pre-ECT cognitive assessment. These patients probably represent a subgroup more vulnerable to cognitive side effects.
Electroconvulsive Therapy and Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review
Complex Psychiatry, 2019
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a remarkably effective treatment for major depressive disorder, but is less commonly utilized for treatment of psychotic disorders. Recent literature indicates that ECT can be a useful strategy for a wide range of psychotic disorders, including treatment-resistant schizophrenia. The purpose of this review is to examine the extant literature on ECT in schizophrenia with a primary focus on its efficacy, its impact on cognitive function, the role of maintenance ECT, and the potential role of neuroimaging biomarkers to provide more precise ECT treatment strategies. We evaluated the available literature, with a particular focus on prospective, randomized trials. Our review suggests that ECT can be an effective treatment strategy in this severely ill patient population. Studies suggest that while ECT in schizophrenia is a safe treatment modality, the potential for cognitive impairment must always be carefully weighed. The use and investigation of new bio...
Archives of Neuroscience, 2022
Background: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is one of the most effective treatments for severe refractory mental diseases. Widespread cognitive complications have affected the acceptance of this treatment. Despite current evidence of short-term cognitive impairment, long-term cognition consequences are less determined. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical approach of psychiatrists, psychiatry residents, and nurses in psychiatric hospitals to the necessity, method, and frequency of cognitive assessment in candidate patients for ECT. Methods: In this descriptive study, 89 professional members of Roozbeh and Razi hospitals, Tehran, Iran, including nurses, residents, and faculty members of psychiatry, were selected using the purposive sampling method. The research questionnaires were sent, and 58 fulfilled questionnaires were sent back. The data were analyzed using central indicators and statistical dispersion. The designed questionnaire included the items related to th...
Multifactorial Determinants of the Neurocognitive Effects of Electroconvulsive Therapy
The Journal of ECT, 2014
For many patients with neuropsychiatric illnesses, standard psychiatric treatments with mono or combination pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, and transcranial magnetic stimulation are ineffective. For these patients with treatment-resistant neuropsychiatric illnesses, a main therapeutic option is electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Decades of research have found ECT to be highly effective; however, it can also result in adverse neurocognitive effects. Specifically, ECT results in disorientation after each session, anterograde amnesia for recently learned information, and retrograde amnesia for previously learned information. Unfortunately, the neurocognitive effects and underlying mechanisms of action of ECT remain poorly understood. The purpose of this paper was to synthesize the multiple moderating and mediating factors that are thought to underlie the neurocognitive effects of ECT into a coherent model. Such factors include demographic and neuropsychological characteristics, neuropsychiatric symptoms, ECT technical parameters, and ECT-associated neurophysiological changes. Future research is warranted to evaluate and test this model, so that these findings may support the development of more refined clinical seizure therapy delivery approaches and efficacious cognitive remediation strategies to improve the use of this important and widely used intervention tool for neuropsychiatric diseases. results in adverse neurocognitive effects. Although neuroimaging research 17 suggests that most cortical and subcortical regions are involved in ECT-associated memory impairment, no conceptual model exists of how the cognitive effects of ECT develop in patients. Thus, the field is at the initial stage of model construction.
Antidepressant electroconvulsive therapy: mechanism of action, recent advances and limitations
Experimental Neurology, 2009
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