The influence of concomitant neuroleptic medication on safety, tolerability and clinical effectiveness of electroconvulsive therapy.

Background: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is still considered to be the most efficacious treatment option in major depressive disorder and treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Unfortunately, in some cases patients do not respond sufficiently to conventional unilateral ECT, or even to bilateral or high dose ECT. In these cases, concomitant pharmacotherapy can be a useful augmentation strategy to improve clinical effectiveness.

The influence of concomitant antidepressant medication on safety, tolerability and clinical effectiveness of electroconvulsive therapy.

Background: A major problem in the treatment of severe depression is the onset latency until clinical improvement. So far, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most effective somatic treatment of depression. This holds especially true for treatment-refractory disturbances.

[Electroconvulsive therapy at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Munich. Development during the years 1995-2002].

Background: So far, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been proven to be a reliable and the most effective somatic treatment of depression or schizophrenia. This holds especially true for disturbances, which are refractory to pharmacological treatments.

Patients And Methods: We evaluated 4803 treatments in 445 patients.

Superior temporal gyrus and P300 in schizophrenia: a combined ERP/structural magnetic resonance imaging investigation.

Decrement of the auditory P300 component of the event-related potentials (ERP) is a robust finding in schizophrenic patients and seems to be most pronounced in the left temporal region. Structural MRI studies support the hypothesis that regional structural brain differences in this patient group include reduced volume in temporal lobe structures. The aim of the presented study was to investigate the possible gray matter volume reductions in the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG) and the P300 reduction and left View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nefazodone in psychotic unipolar and bipolar depression: a retrospective chart analysis and open prospective study on its efficacy and safety versus combined treatment with amitriptyline and haloperidol.

Although atypical antipsychotics are on the rise, traditional treatment of psychotic (or delusional) depression mostly includes the addition of classical antipsychotics to antidepressants. As there are only few data supporting this approach compared with antidepressant monotherapy, and almost no data comparing it with antidepressants of the latest generation, we conducted a retrospective chart analysis and a prospective, randomized open study on the efficacy and tolerability of nefazodone monotherapy versus combined treatment with amitriptyline and haloperidol in psychotic depression. The results suggest that the addition of classical antipsychotics should be reserved for those with very severe psychotic symptoms, but may not be needed in milder forms.