From: Electroconvulsive therapy use in adolescents: a systematic review
Authors | Publication year | Journal | Main findings |
---|---|---|---|
Indications for ECT use in adolescents | |||
Wachtel et al. [6] | 2011 | Medical Hypotheses | The use of ECT in children and adolescents is appropriate for specific clinical indications and urge removal of impediments to ECT access in this population |
Baeza et al. [7] | 2010 | Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology | ECT is a safe and effective treatment for schizophrenia spectrum disorders in adolescent patients |
Consoli et al. [14] | 2010 | Journal of ECT | Electroconvulsive therapy is the effective treatment for catatonia after high-dose benzodiazepine trials in youths |
Hazell [1] | 2009 | Clinical Evidence | Electroconvulsive therapy is indicated for a severely obtunded child or adolescent with depression who may, for example, have prolonged psychotic symptoms, and fails to hydrate or maintain caloric intake |
Baghai and Moller [16] | 2008 | Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience | The safety and tolerability of ECT have been enhanced by the use of modified stimulation techniques and by the progress of modern anesthesia, representing a safe treatment that can be offered to all patients, especially after medication failure |
Stein et al. [24] | 2006 | Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America | ECT is an effective therapy for severe and resistant depression, with relatively minimal adverse effects |
Ghaziuddin et al. [27] | 2004 | Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry | Eligible adolescents for ECT must meet three criteria: diagnosis (severe, persistent major depression or mania, with or without psychosis, schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia, and others), severity of symptoms, and lack of treatment response |
Electroconvulsive therapy: treatment parameters | |||
Shoirah and Hamoda [13] | 2011 | Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics | Although bilateral electrode placement may be more effective than unilateral placement for manic patients, unilateral electrode placement has been found to have equivalent results for other indications |
Baeza et al. [7] | 2010 | Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology | The mean duration of electroencephalogram seizures was 43.9 ± 16.9 s (range, 20 to 93), with significant differences between males and females |
Antunes et al. [15] | 2009 | Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria | Studies show that high-dose unilateral ECT (UL-ECT) has an equivalent efficacy to bifrontotemporal ECT; however, low-dose UL-ECT has lower efficacy |
Efficiency of ECT, associations with other therapies and comparison between techniques | |||
Garg et al. [12] | 2011 | Indian Journal of Medical Research | Patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia treated with ECT had an improvement in quality of life. All aspects of quality of life got better, except the social relations |
Lévy-Rueff et al. [18] | 2008 | Psychiatry Research | Part of a clinical cohort was composed by adolescents. Maintenance ECT in association with pharmacological treatment presented good outcomes for refractory schizophrenia |
Bloch et al. [29] | 2001 | Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry | ECT was equally effective in adolescents and adults (58% of remission), but most of adolescents presented psychotic syndromes, instead of affective disorders in adults |
Strober et al. [10] | 1998 | Biological Psychiatry | Adolescents aged 13 to 17 years with bipolar depression or major depressive disorder presented 60% of total and 40% of partial remission in a month follow-up |
Kutcher and Robertson [34] | 1995 | Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology | Patients who accepted ECT improved significantly compared to those who refused. The mean duration of hospital stay was reduced from 176 to 73.8 days |
Schneekloth et al. [37] | 1993 | Convulsive Therapy | Retrospective study with a 65% response rate among adolescents between 13 and 18 years old |
Paillère-Martinot et al. [39] | 1990 | Encephale | Patients aged 15 to 19 years with different diagnoses achieved 88% of response rate after typical ECT application |
Side effects, risks, and complications of ECT for adolescents | |||
Feliu et al. [17] | 2008 | Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment | Relatively immediate and significant decreases in multiple areas of memory following ECT, compared with pre-ECT levels of functioning, including verbal memory for word lists, prose passages, and visual memory of geometric designs |
Datka et al. [21] | 2007 | Klinika Psychiatrii CM UJ. | One day after first ECT, patient's working memory was slightly impaired. ECT treatment affects working memory function only temporally |
Prakash et al. [22] | 2006 | Journal of ECT | ECT presents cognitive side effects especially in recent memory. The post-ECT recovery of various components of cognition was more rapid in patients using donepezil and compared with placebo |
Cohen et al. [31] | 2000 | The American Journal of Psychiatry | After a 3.5-year follow-up, patients who received ECT presented similar memory functions to those of psychiatric controls. Poorer cognitive performance is related with greater psychopathology, not with the treatment |
Ghazziudin et al. [32] | 1999 | Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology | Comparison with pre-ECT and post-ECT tests resulted in significant impairments of concentration and attention, verbal and visual delayed recall, and verbal fluency. Second stage of post-ECT tests (mean, 8.5 months after ECT) showed complete recovery and return to pre-ECT functioning |