Understanding why some patients with depression remain resistant to antidepressant medication could be elucidated by investigating their associated neural features. Although research has consistently demonstrated abnormalities in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) - a region that is part of the default mode network (DMN) - in treatment-resistant depression (TRD), a considerable research gap exists in discerning how these neural networks distinguish TRD from treatment-sensitive depression (TSD). We aimed to evaluate the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the ACC with other regions of the DMN to better understand the role of this structure in the pathophysiology of TRD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAustralas Psychiatry
August 2024
Objective: This review aimed to address the limited evidence on the efficacy of continuation or maintenance electroconvulsive therapy (C/M-ECT) in schizophrenia, with a focus on international case reports and series due to the scarcity of randomised controlled trials.
Materials And Methods: Electronic database searches were conducted to identify case reports or series evaluating the efficacy of C/M-ECT in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.
Results: C/M-ECT treatment span varied from 3 months to 36 years ( = 30 months; = 43.
Objective: There are few studies that examine the effectiveness of Continuation/Maintenance Electroconvulsive Therapy (C/M-ECT) in schizophrenia, despite the documented effectiveness of acute ECT treatment. We aimed to investigate the clinical effectiveness of C/M-ECT for in-patients with Schizophrenia in a naturalistic setting. We examined the medical records of 46 in-patients who were diagnosed with Schizophrenia and had received C/M-ECT belonging to non-acute extended care service in a public psychiatry hospital in Sydney, Australia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: A significant proportion of patients with major depressive disorder are resistant to antidepressant medication and psychological treatments. A core symptom of treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is anhedonia, or the inability to feel pleasure, which has been attributed to disrupted habenula function - a component of the reward network. This study aimed to map detailed neural circuitry architecture related to the habenula to identify neural mechanisms of TRD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The recent and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has placed a huge burden on healthcare systems worldwide. This emergent situation applies invariably to mental health services, and policy makers have issued new directives to adequately deal with this crisis. The COVID-19 outbreak poses special challenges to the administration of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) since the anaesthetic induction is an aerosol-generating process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF