The treatment of choice for acute schizophrenia is antipsychotic drug treatment and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and should only be considered as an option for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, where treatment with clozapine has already proven ineffective or intolerable. The use of ECT as a maintenance treatment for patients with schizophrenia and comorbid epilepsy is uncommon as scant evid...

OBJECTIVE To critically review data relating the seizure duration in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to its therapeutic effect in the treatment of depressive illness. METHOD The authors used MEDLINE, PSYCHINFO on CDROM, and their own knowledge of the literature to find studies or reviews concerning the role of seizure duration in ECT efficacy. RESULTS Rigorous studies cast doubt on the usef...

Dementia-related behavioral disturbances are mostly treated with antipsychotics; however, the observed beneficial effects are modest and the risk of serious adverse effects high. We report the case of a 57-year-old woman with severe early-onset Alzheimer's disease and severe agitation, whom we treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). A significant clinical improvement was achieved over eig...

Predicting memory problems in older depressed patients receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is difficult. In this study, hippocampal volume and acute memory outcomes were examined in 15 patients following an index course of ECT. Smaller hippocampal volume was associated with poorer ECT-related memory outcomes. These results add to a growing literature on memory, ECT, and the hippocampus. A...

Continuation and maintenance electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is used to reduce the risk for relapse and recurrence of affective disorders and schizophrenic disorders. Despite the potential value of these ECT schedules, both are relatively neglected in clinical practice. This article reviews the recent research on the subject. Although most of the research are small open studies and case reports...

OBJECTIVE To elucidate the relationship between the effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on hippocampal anatomy and function in the therapy of melancholic depression and preclinical observations of increased neurogenesis in the hippocampus of experimental animals receiving electroconvulsive seizures (ECS). We emphasize the role of hypercortisolaemia in melancholic depression and in experi...

Abstract The extent of field volume (FOV) considered in MRI-guided forward models electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) are, as expected, limited to the MRI collected. As a consequence, there is variation model across simulation efforts. This study examines impact modeled FOV on induced electric (EF) due two common electrode configurations: right unilateral (RUL) and bilateral (BL). We also intend de...

The effect of pretreatment with odansetron on prolactin (PRL) release induced by electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was examined in 16 depressive patients in a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study. Ten patients were pretreated with 4 mg and the other six with 8 mg of ondansetron. The order of administration of study medication (ondansetron and placebo) was counterbalanced. The failure ...

Anesthesia for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) usually involves the intravenous (IV) administration of drugs such as methohexital, thiopental, propofol, etomidate, or ketamine. Sevoflurane is an inhalational anesthetic agent that has been available past 3 decades. Although many studies have examined sevoflurane in context ECT, treatment guidelines make either no mention only passing its potenti...

Opisthotonus is known to occur in tetanus, rabies, cerebral malaria, neurosyphilis, acute cerebral injury and other medical conditions. Opisthotonus, so far, has not been reported in any major psychiatric disorder. Authors report a case of recurrent opisthotonus presenting concurrently with other catatonic signs which showed dramatic response to combination of lorazepam and electroconvulsive th...