Sex-specifics of ECT outcome.

Objective: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most effective treatment for patients with severe major depressive disorder (MDD). Given the known sex differences in MDD, improved knowledge may provide more sex-specific recommendations in clinical guidelines and improve outcome. In the present study we examine sex differences in ECT outcome and its predictors.

At the Core of Depression: A Diagnostic Interview of the Core Features of Depression.

Introduction: Valid and reliable methods for diagnosing depression are essential. The present study aimed to test the performance of a new diagnostic interview for depression focusing on the core symptoms of depression.

Method: We developed a diagnostic interview for depression: the CORE Diagnostic Interview, CORE-DI, which assesses each of the core features of depression on the four dimensions: quality, reactivity, globality, and fluctuations over time.

Structural changes induced by electroconvulsive therapy are associated with clinical outcome.

Background: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most effective treatment option for major depressive disorder, so understanding whether its clinical effect relates to structural brain changes is vital for current and future antidepressant research.

Objective: To determine whether clinical response to ECT is related to structural volumetric changes in the brain as measured by structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and, if so, which regions are related to this clinical effect. We also determine whether a similar model can be used to identify regions associated with electrode placement (unilateral versus bilateral ECT).

[Electroconvulsive therapy].

Within psychiatry, no treatment is as effective - or controversial - as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and ECT is the only non-pharmacological treatment in widespread clinical psychiatry. The history of ECT as a psychiatric treatment is outlined in this review, and the efficacy in four diagnostic entities is reviewed along with side effects. The evidence shows compelling effect of ECT when administered within affective disorders, delirium and psychotic states.