Magnetic Seizure Therapy for Depression Found as Effective as ECT

Magnetic seizure therapy (MST) appears to be as effective as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) at achieving lasting antidepressant effects in people with major depression and may be less disorienting. Thefindings were published yesterday inJAMA Psychiatry.While ECT is highly effective for treating major depressive disorder, “it carries the risk of adverse neurocognitive effects,” wrote Zhi-De Deng, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health and colleagues. MST aims to match the efficacy of ECT while reducing the adverse effects, they continued.Deng and colleagues conducted a trial of participants aged 18 to 90 years who were referred for ECT treatment. The participants had all experienced a major depressive episode and had a diagnosis of major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder. They had a baseline score of 18 or higher on the 24-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS-24). Participants were tapered off any antidepressant medications they were taking and assigned to receive either MST or right unilateral ultrabrief pulse ECT, after which they were followed for up to six months.Participants in both groups received treatment three times per week until they achieved remission (defined as at least 60% reduction in HDRS-24 score and a total score of no more than 8), or until their HDRS-24 scores plateaued for at least three treatment sessions starting after treatment eight. If participants had less than a 25% decrease in HDRS-24 score by the eighth treatment, tre...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: depression ECT electroconvulsive therapy JAMA Psychiatry magnetic seizure therapy Source Type: research