Efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy augmentation for partial response to clozapine: a pilot randomized ECT – sham controlled trial

Background: Thirty percent of schizophrenia patients are treatment-resistant. Objective: This is a single-blinded sham-controlled trial to assess the efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as augmentation strategy in patients with clozapine-resistant schizophrenia. Methods: Twenty three subjects were randomly assigned to 12 sessions of ECT (N = 13) or placebo (Sham ECT) (N = 10). The primary outcome was improvement on psychotic symptoms as measured by the mean reduction of the PANSS positive subscale. The assessments were performed by blind raters. Results: At baseline both groups were similar, except for negative and total symptoms of the PANSS, which were higher in the Sham group. At the endpoint both groups had a significant decrease from basal score. In the ECT group the PANSS total score decreased 8.78%, from 81.23 to 74.75 (p = 0.042), while the positive subscale had a mean reduction of 19% (19.31 to 16.17, p = 0.006). In the Sham group, the mean reduction of PANSS total score was 15.27% (96.80 to 87.43; p = 0.036), and the PANSS positive subscale decreased 27.81% (22.90 to 19.14, p = 0.008). The CGI score in ECT group decreased 23.0% (5.23 to 4.17; p = 0.001) and decreased 24.31% in the Sham ECT group (5.80 to 4.86; p = 0.004). Discussion: In this pilot study, we found no difference between the groups. Melzer-Ribeiro DL et al. / Arch Clin Psychiatry. 2017;44(2):45-50