Effects of electrical stimulus composition on cardiac electrophysiology in a rodent model of electroconvulsive therapy.

Background: No electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) study on humans or in animal models has so far examined whether differently composed electrical stimuli exert different cardiac electrophysiological effects at constant electrical dose. The subject is important because cardiac electrophysiological changes may provide indirect information about ECT seizure quality as modulated by stimulus composition.

Materials And Methods: Adult female Wistar rats ( = 20/group) received fixed, moderately suprathreshold (18 mC) electrical stimuli.

Early and late postictal cardiac electrophysiological changes associated with low, moderate, and high dose electroconvulsive shocks.

Background: Studies have examined the effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on human cardiac electrophysiology. However, no study has so far examined whether these effects vary with the magnitude of the electrical dose used to elicit the seizure. Because the benefits and adverse effects of the ECT seizure are dose-dependent, we examined the effects of different electrical doses of electroconvulsive shocks (ECS) on cardiac electrophysiology in an animal model with a view to determine whether cardiac electrophysiology could be a useful proxy to evaluate the quality of the ECT seizure.

Impact of an educational module in antidepressant-naive patients prescribed antidepressants for depression: Pilot, proof-of-concept, randomized controlled trial.

Background: Patients are educated about their illness and its treatment at the time of diagnosis. However, little is known about how much of this education is retained and how it influences knowledge about, attitudes toward, and experiences with medication in antidepressant-naive patients with depression.

Methods: Antidepressant-naive outpatients with International Classification of Diseases-10 dysthymia or mild to moderate depression, who were advised antidepressant monotherapy, were randomized to control ( = 22) or intervention ( = 17) groups.

Celecoxib as an in vivo probe of cyclooxygenase-2 mechanisms underlying retrograde amnesia in an animal model of ECT.

Background: Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) mechanisms are involved in glutamate-mediated learning and memory as well as in glutamatergic excitotoxicity. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)-induced amnesia may arise from glutamatergic excitotoxicity; if so, COX-2 inhibition may attenuate retrograde amnesia with ECT.

Methods: Wistar rats which received celecoxib (15 mg/kg per day) or vehicle for 18 days were trained for 3 days on a passive avoidance task.

Glucocorticoid mechanisms may contribute to ECT-induced retrograde amnesia.

Rationale: Cortisol levels rise sharply immediately after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT); the resultant stimulation of steroid receptors in the hippocampus may be beneficial or harmful to cognition, depending on the magnitude of the stimulation. Steroid mechanisms may therefore modulate ECT-induced amnesia.

Objectives: Using mifepristone (a glucocorticoid receptor antagonist) as a chemical probe, we sought to examine steroid mechanisms in an animal model of ECT-induced retrograde amnesia.