ECT, Medication Combo Found as Safe as Medication Alone to Maintain Remission From MDD

Older adults being treated for depression with a combination of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and medication appear to have similar cognitive improvements over time as those treated with medication only, according to areport in theAmerican Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.Sarah Lisanby, M.D., director of the Noninvasive Neuromodulation Unit at the National Institute of Mental Health, and colleagues looked at neurocognitive outcomes in adults aged 60 and over enrolled in the multicenter Prolonging Remission in Depressed Elderly (PRIDE) study. A2016 analysis of that study, which appeared in the American Journal of Psychiatry, found that patients receiving a combination ECT and medication for six months experienced greater improvements in mood compared with those who received pharmacotherapy alone.For the current study, Lisanby and colleagues examined six-month neurocognitive outcomes for a total of 120 patients with remitted depression who received either a combination of ECT (right unilateral ultrabrief pulse ECT), venlafaxine, and lithium or venlafaxine and lithium only as part of the PRIDE study. The researchers used standard instruments to assess attention and processing speed, verbal fluency, verbal learning and memory, memory of personal events in one ’s own life, and executive functions.With the exception of processing speed, there was statistically significant improvement across most neurocognitive measures from baseline to six-month follow-up for both groups of pati...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry depression ECT lithium older adults PRIDE study Venlafaxine Source Type: research