Adjunctive ECT Improves Cognition, Symptoms in Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia
Adding electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to antipsychotic treatment in a group of patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia decreased overall symptom severity by nearly a third while improving several neurocognitive domains, according to a study in The Journal of ECT.
The effect of ECT on neurocognition had been a source of concern, researchers explained.
“Electroconvulsive therapy has proved effective and safe in the treatment of treatment-resistant schizophrenia,” they wrote, “but because of potential neurocognitive adverse effects, it is associated with many controversies.”
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To evaluate the effects of adding ECT to patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia already taking antipsychotics, researchers examined verbal memory, visual memory, working memory, psychomotor speed, verbal fluency, and executive functioning before and after ECT treatment in 31 inpatients.
Executive function, as well as immediate and delayed verbal memory, showed statistically significant improvement after ECT, researchers reported. A statistical trend was observed for visual memory and psychomotor speed.
Researchers found no evidence of significant deterioration of any neurocognitive functions after ECT. What’s more, they identified a more than 30% decrease in overall symptom severity, as measured by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).
“Notwithstanding some limitations of this study,” they concluded, “the combination of ECT and antipsychotics has improved several neurocognitive domains without evidence of worsening of any cognitive functions.”
—Jolynn Tumolo
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