In the present study, we evaluated TACA (a potent agonist of GABA(A) and GABA(C) receptors) in the electroconvulsive threshold test in mice. Surprisingly, TACA (at 15 and 25 mg/kg) significantly decreased the threshold. The highest ineffective dose of TACA was estimated as 10 mg/kg. The obtained results indicate that the drug enhancing GABAergic transmission may possess proconvulsant properties...

The use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in the clinical practice in patients with dementia syndromes continues to cause controversy. In this case, the clinical difficulty existing when making a differential diagnosis between depressive episodes and incipient dementia picture is presented. The interrelation between these two pictures and the possible common etiological origin are also evaluat...

The aim of this study was to determine the characteristics of ECT practice in Polish Psychiatric Clinics in 2005. A questionnaire was sent to all Polish psychiatric hospitals that performed electroconvulsive therapy in 2005. Altogether 450 patients (0.22% of the general number of psychiatric inpatients in 2005 and 0.72% of the inpatients of hospitals where electroconvulsive therapy was performe...

How can it be determined whether a patient has consented to electroconvulsive therapy? Under what circumstances should therapy be given against a patient's will? Peter MacDonald addresses these questions from a medical, ethical and legal perspective. This article is available in Osgoode Hall Law Journal: http://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol22/iss4/3 MEDICAL, ETHICAL AND LEGAL CONSIDE...

background: lennox-gastaut syndrome (lgs) is an epileptic encephalopathy, characterized by drug-resistant multiple seizure types. the aim of this study was to determine if the adjunctive use of electroconvulsive therapy (ect) in patients with lgs and drug-resistant epilepsy is efficacious in decreasing their seizure frequency and also to investigate its safety and tolerability.   methods: this ...

Morphine, a mu-opiate agonist, and ethylketazocine, a kappa-opiate agonist, produce distinct behavioral, pharmacologic, and biochemical effects. In the mouse, large doses of morphine produce convulsions that are usually lethal and that cannot be blocked by naltrexone, whereas ethylketazocine produces nonlethal clonic convulsions that can be blocked by naltrexone. Moreover, mice made tolerant to...

A sensitive radioimmunoassay that can detect brain damage in cases of head injury and stroke was applied to blood samples from 13 patients before and after they received multiple treatments with electroconvulsive therapy for psychiatric disorder. None of the patients showed a significant increase in serum myelin basic protein immunoreactivity. As increased serum myelin basic protein immunoreact...

Caffeine-augmented electroconvulsive therapy has been introduced into medical practice without experimental confirmation that such seizure modification does not result in neuronal injury. In this report rats pretreated with caffeine prior to a series of nine electrically induced convulsions showed neuronal injury confined to hippocampal sectors and striatum. Electrically induced convulsions wit...

BACKGROUND The treatment of depressive phases of bipolar disorder is challenging. The effects of the commonly used antidepressants in bipolar depression are questionable. Electroconvulsive therapy is generally considered to be the most effective treatment even if there are no randomized controlled trials of electroconvulsive therapy in bipolar depression. The safety of electroconvulsive therapy...

Speculations on the involvement of hippocampal neurogenesis, a form of neuronal plasticity, in the aetiology of depression and the mode of action of antidepressive therapies, started to arise more than a decade ago. But still, conclusive evidence that adult neurogenesis contributes to antidepressive effects of pharmacological and physical therapies has not been generated yet. This review revisi...