Can the Addition of Maintenance Electroconvulsive Therapy to Pharmacotherapy Improve Relapse Prevention in Severe Major Depressive Disorder? A Randomized Controlled Trial
Martínez-Amorós, Erika (Parc Taulí Hospital Universitari. Institut d'Investigació i Innovació Parc Taulí (I3PT))
Cardoner, N. (Narcís) (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Psiquiatria i de Medicina Legal)
Gálvez, Verònica (Parc Taulí Hospital Universitari. Institut d'Investigació i Innovació Parc Taulí (I3PT))
De Arriba-Arnau, Aida (Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge)
Soria, Virginia (Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge)
Palao, Diego (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Psiquiatria i de Medicina Legal)
Menchón, José M. (Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge)
Urretavizcaya, Mikel (Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge)

Date:	2021
Abstract:	Few systematic evaluations have been performed of the efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as a relapse prevention strategy in major depressive disorder (MDD). This is a single-blind, multicenter, randomized controlled trial to compare the efficacy and tolerability of pharmacotherapy plus maintenance ECT (M-Pharm/ECT) versus pharmacotherapy alone (M-Pharm) in the prevention of MDD relapse. Subjects with MDD who had remitted with bilateral acute ECT (n = 37) were randomly assigned to receive M-Pharm/ECT (n = 19, 14 treatments) or M-Pharm (n = 18) for nine months. The subjects were followed up for 15 months. The main outcome was relapse of depression, defined as a score of 18 or more on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. At nine months, 35% of the subjects treated with M-Pharm/ECT relapsed as compared with 61% of the patients treated with M-Pharm. No statistically significant differences between groups were indicated by either Kaplan-Meier or Cox proportional hazards regression analyses. The subjects without psychotic features were at higher risk of relapse. There were no statistically significant differences in the MMSE scores of the two groups at the end of the study. Further studies are needed to better define the indications for M-ECT in order to improve its efficacy as a relapse prevention strategy.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Electroconvulsive therapy ; Major depressive disorder ; Prevention ; Relapse ; Recurrence ; Maintenance
Published in:	Brain sciences, Vol. 11 (october 2021) , ISSN 2076-3425

DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11101340
PMID: 34679404

15 p, 1.9 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Health sciences and biosciences > Parc Taulí Research and Innovation Institute (I3PT
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles