percentage of depression patients who respond to ect treatment

by Damon Feeney Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has proven effective in the treatment of major depressive disorder1) and especially (TRD). 2,3) Several recent reports have shown that 70% to 90% of patients with TRD responded to ECT.

Should ECT be more widely used in treating depression?

Objective: Roughly one-third of individuals with depression do not respond to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Reliable predictors of ECT response would be useful for patient selection, but have not been demonstrated definitively. We used meta-analysis to measure effect sizes for a series of clinical predictors of ECT response in depression.

Does episode length predict ECT Nonresponse in medication-resistant major depression?

Feb 20, 2020 · However, with 7.0 T MRI applied to detect hippocampal volume changes in MDD patients who underwent ECT, a large and significant increase was observed after ECT in only the DG of the hippocampal volume. Furthermore, the increase in DG volume was related to a decrease in depression scores ( Nuninga et al., 2019 ).

What is the success rate of ECT?

May 01, 2012 · ECT is a recognized mode of treatment for a variety of mental disorders, including treatment-resistant depression. 105, 106 ECT is still the most consistently effective in patients with treatment-resistant depression, with a response rate of 50%–70%. 30 Furthermore, ECT remains the treatment of first choice for the most severe, incapacitating forms of treatment …

What correlates with rapid treatment response to electroconvulsive therapy for major depression?

Abstract. In medication-resistant patients with major depressive disorder, the response rate with bilateral electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) drops to 50% from the expected range of 80% to 90%. Relapse rates following ECT are high in medication-resistant depressed patients and are clustered in the first 4 months following clinical response.

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Jul 25, 2019 · Overall, ECT is approximately 80 percent effective when a patient is a good candidate. By comparison, about 50 percent of patients respond to antidepressant medication. ECT is primarily reserved for patients who do not respond to other types of therapy, but in some patients with severe symptoms, failure of other therapies is not a requirement.

What percentage of depression patients improve after ECT treatment?

Extensive research has found ECT to be highly effective for the relief of major depression. Clinical evidence indicates that for individuals with uncomplicated, but severe major depression, ECT will produce substantial improvement in approximately 80 percent of patients.

What is the success rate of ECT for depression?

These sessions improve depression in 70 to 90 percent of patients, a response rate much higher than that of antidepressant drugs. Although ECT is effective, its benefits are short-lived.

What is the success rate of ECT therapy?

What is the Success Rate of Electroconvulsive Therapy? ECT is an effective medical treatment option, helping as many as 80-85 percent of patients who receive it. Most patients remain well for many months afterwards.

What is the effectiveness rate of ECT in severe treatment-resistant depression?

A naturalistic study that analyzed 38 patients who showed severe resistant to treatment, concluded that ECT is highly effective and showed a higher than 50% remission rate (40).

Who is a good candidate for ECT?

People who have had ECT before and responded well are good candidates for ECT. Other first-line indications for the procedure include people who are catatonic or suffering from a form of depression known as psychotic depression (depression associated with delusions and hallucinations).

What happens if ECT doesn't work for depression?

If nothing else has helped, including ECT, and you are still severely depressed, you may be offered neurosurgery for mental disorder (NMD), deep brain stimulation (DBS) or vagus nerve stimulation (VNS).

What is the failure rate of ECT?

Not only does it work better than medications (according to Weeks, medications have a success rate of 50–60 percent of patients getting better, while ECT succeeds at a rate of 70–90 percent), it works faster. Medications typically take up to eight weeks to show improvement.Feb 13, 2017

Can ECT make you more depressed?

ECT can't prevent future depression, or fix any ongoing stresses or problems that are contributing to how you're feeling. Some people have very bad experiences of ECT, for example because they feel worse after treatment or are given it without consent. You might not want to risk the possibility of getting side effects.

Is ECT better than antidepressants?

The main outcome measures they assessed were depressive symptoms, cognitive function (including memory), and mortality. Results from 18 trials (comprising 1144 participants) showed that ECT was significantly more effective than drug treatment (standardised effect size –0.80, 95% confidence interval –1.29 to –0.29).

When should ECT not be used?

The following strategies should not be used routinely: augmentation of an antidepressant with a benzodiazepine for more than 2 weeks as there is a risk of dependence. augmentation of an antidepressant with buspirone*, carbamazepine*, lamotrigine* or valproate* as there is insufficient evidence for their use.

Does ECT worsen anxiety?

The concern of some psychiatrists is that while ECT may help with depressive symptoms, it could worsen anxiety symptoms, including obsessional thoughts or panic attacks.Mar 22, 2020

How long does ECT take to work?

Results. Many people begin to notice an improvement in their symptoms after about six treatments with electroconvulsive therapy. Full improvement may take longer, though ECT may not work for everyone. Response to antidepressant medications, in comparison, can take several weeks or more.Oct 12, 2018

How does ECT work?

ECT works by delivering a shock to the mind that creates a seizure. In many ways, it seems to reboot the entire brain so that it can lift the veil of depression. It might even be able to reconnect nerves or neuroconnections that have stopped functioning properly for some reason.

What comes to mind when you think about Electroconvulsive Therapy?

What comes to mind when you think about Electroconvulsive Therapy [ECT]? For many, visions of the old-fashioned shock therapies that required patients to wear a helmet covered in electrodes and endure large amounts of voltage come to mind. It’s often thought of as something from the Stone Age of medicine and is barbaric at best. What you might not know is that ECT is not only still in use today, but it is often prescribed more often than you might think.

How long does memory last after ECT?

Memory complications can easily last for up to 3 years past the procedure date.

How effective is ECT?

ECT is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and has been shown to be highly effective, giving some patients full reversal of severe depression symptoms. Overall, ECT is approximately 80 percent effective when a patient is a good candidate. By comparison, about 50 percent of patients respond to antidepressant medication.

What is ECT therapy?

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is one of the most effective treatments for severe mental health conditions, most commonly treatment-resistant depression. ECT also can be used to treat other psychiatric issues, such as psychosis and catatonia (a condition that affects speech and movement).

What is electroconvulsive therapy?

What is ECT used for?

ECT also can be used to treat other psychiatric issues, such as psychosis and catatonia (a condition that affects speech and movement). ECT is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and has been shown to be highly effective, giving some patients full reversal of severe depression symptoms.

How long does an ECT last?

The seizure lasts 30 to 45 seconds, and the entire procedure lasts only about five minutes. ECT is generally well-tolerated.

Is ECT performed under anesthesia?

ECT today is a sophisticated procedure – nothing like how it’s portrayed in that old movie. Today, ECT is performed under general anesthesia. Patients are monitored continuously to reduce the risk of complications. Patients are asleep and unaware of the stimulation.

Is MST the same as ECT?

MST is similar to ECT but uses magnets in place of electrical currents to stimulate the brain. We know that bilateral ECT (both sides of the brain are treated) is superior to MST and unilateral ECT (only one side is treated).

What does the speed of response tell us about the mechanisms of action of ECT?

What does the speed of response tell us about the mechanisms of action of ECT? Clearly, in certain patients, the neurobiological changes induced by ECT include almost immediate alterations in brain systems that regulate mood and affect. Perhaps a “switch” mechanism (similar to that seen in bipolar patients) occurs; however, there is no evidence to suggest that very rapid improvement with ECT is associated with bipolar rather than unipolar depression. There is evidence to demonstrate that, overall, bipolar patients require fewer ECT sessions than unipolar patients. 11 Investigation of the rapid antidepressant action of the intravenous anesthetic ketamine may lead to elucidation of related mechanisms of recovery from severe affective illness. 12

How long does it take for depression to go away?

There is considerable variability in the trajectories, but most commonly there is progressive symptomatic improvement within the first week and complete remission within 3 to 4 weeks.

Who Responds Best to ECT?

Demographic variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status are not associated with differential ECT response. A recent meta-analysis in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry found that shorter depressive episode duration correlated with better response, arguing for earlier rather than later treatment with ECT.

Suggested Algorithm for Depressed Patients and ECT Selection

The first step in considering ECT is to ensure that patients definitively meet the criteria for a major depressive episode. Patients whose dysphoria is better accounted for by another condition—common ones being anxiety, eating disorders, and personality disorders—should not be treated with ECT.

How long does it take for a person to relapse from ECT?

Although more than 80% of patients with a severe depressive illness who complete an acute course of ECT are relieved within three weeks, up to 60% relapse within six months, despite continuation treatments with antidepressant medications.1,2 In a large, government-supported, collaborative study led by the Columbia University Consortium (CUC), patients with unipolar major depression that had failed to respond to multiple trials of medications were treated with ECT to clinical remission and then randomly assigned to one of three continuation treatments--placebo, nortriptyline (Aventyl, Pamelor) alone, or the combination of nortriptyline and lithium (Eskalith, Lithobid). The patients were monitored for adequacy of blood levels.1 Within the six-month follow-up period, 84% of patients treated with placebo, 60% of patients treated with nortriptyline, and 39% of patients treated with the combination medications had relapsed.

How long does it take for a depressive patient to relapse?

What is treatment resistance?

The failure of a depressive illness to respond to antidepressant treatments estimated to have been prescribed at adequate dosages for adequate treatment periods has been labeled "treatment resistance." To define treatment adequacy, scientists at Columbia University developed an antidepressant treatment history form (ATHF). 14

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