CYW Chan, E Abdin, E Seow, M Subramaniam, J Liu, CX Peh and PC Tor,
Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, Apr 26 2019
Although ECT has been shown to be efficacious for patients with treatment resistant schizophrenia, there has been limited evidence on the rate of response, cognition and quality of life outcomes. The primary aims of this present study are thus to examine the effectiveness and speed of response to ECT in a naturalistic retrospective cohort in patients with treatment resistant schizophrenia.We performed a retrospective database analysis. The primary effectiveness outcome was defined by an improvement of ≥40% from pre-treatment scores based on the BPRS psychotic symptom subscale. Data was included for analysis for all patients 1) with a primary DSM-5 diagnosis of schizophrenia, which 2) was treatment-resistant, and 3) had an acute course of ECT initiated for the treatment of schizophrenia between 01 July 2016 and 01 December 2016.A total of 50 inpatients were included for analysis. The present study revealed that 50% of patients showed at least a 40% reduction in BPRS psychotic subscale scores after completion of ECT. 16.7% of patients responded after the first 3 sessions, 39.3% after 6 sessions, 46.4% after 9 sessions and 50% after 12 sessions. The greatest improvement in BPRS scores was between the 3rd and 6th ECT sessions. BPRS scores, Clinical Global Impression, Montreal Cognitive Assessment and Global Assessment of Functioning showed significant improvement. There was no significant difference in quality of life outcomes.This study demonstrates the real world effectiveness and rate of response of patients receiving ECT, utilizing modern techniques in treatment resistant schizophrenia. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.