Electroconvulsive Therapy:Does a History of Pharmacoresistance Influence the Therapeutic Response?

Overview

A retrospective study was implemented in females of an admission department of a psychiatrichospital. Electroconvulsive treatment was administered bilaterally by brief-pulse stimulationusing a Thymatron device. The group comprised a total of 99 female patients, mean age 47.4 ± 15.7years (range 17 - 82 years) with diagnoses of unipolar and bipolar depression, mania, schizoaffective disorders and schizophrenia. The total number of administered electroconvulsions was 663,the mean number of electroconvulsions per patient was 6.69 ± 2.24 (range 3 - 13). The total numberof electroconvulsions fit for evaluation was 657. Pharmacoresistant patients from the sub-groupof affective disorders had a generally smaller improvement of CGI (p = 0.038), the onset of the firstimprovement during treatment was later (p = 0.0008) and they needed a larger number of electroconvulsions (p = 0.014) than non-pharmacoresistent patients. In the sub-group of schizophrenicdisorders it was found that resistant patients differed significantly from non-resistant ones onlyas regards the rate of improvement of CGI (p = 0.0001).

Key words:
electroconvulsive treatment, therapeutic effect, pharmacoresistance, psychopharmaceutical preparations, antidepressants, neuroleptics.