Use of ECT in Major Vascular Neurocognitive Disorder with Treatment-Resistant Behavioral Disturbance following an Acute Stroke in a Young Patient.

The following case describes the utilization of bitemporal ECT as a treatment of last resort in a 47-year-old woman with profoundly treatment-resistant behavioral disturbance poststroke. The use of ECT led to improvement in symptoms sufficient for discharge from an inpatient psychiatric unit to the nursing home. Neuropsychiatric sequelae of stroke include poststroke depression, anxiety, mania, psychosis, apathy, pathological laughter and crying, catastrophic reaction, and mild and major vascular neurocognitive disorders.

A Randomized Sham-Controlled Trial of Deep Brain Stimulation of the Ventral Capsule/Ventral Striatum for Chronic Treatment-Resistant Depression.

Background: Multiple open-label trials of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), including those targeting the ventral capsule/ventral striatum target, have shown encouraging response rates. However, no randomized controlled trials of DBS for TRD have been published.

Methods: Thirty patients with TRD participated in a sham-controlled trial of DBS at the ventral capsule/ventral striatum target for TRD.

The emerging use of technology for the treatment of depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders.

Background: Our objective is to review emerging technologies intended for the treatment of depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders.

Methods: These technologies include repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), magnetic seizure therapy (MST), vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), deep brain stimulation (DBS), cortical brain stimulation (CBS), and quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG).

Results: The rationale for these technologies, their mechanisms of action, and how they are used in clinical practice are described.

Exploratory randomized clinical study of pagoclone in persistent developmental stuttering: the EXamining Pagoclone for peRsistent dEvelopmental Stuttering Study.

Introduction: Stuttering is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by repetitions, prolongation, and blocks of sounds, syllables, or words. No pharmacological treatments are approved for use in stuttering, and the most common form of treatment is speech therapy. This study was designed to assess the safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of pagoclone during 8 weeks of double-blind treatment followed by a 1-year open-label extension in patients who stutter.

Pharmacotherapy of mood disorders.

The mood disorders-primarily major depressive disorder and bipolar affective disorder-constitute one of the world's greatest public health problems and are associated with significant reductions in productivity, health, and longevity. In addition, people who suffer from these common illnesses, along with their families and loved ones, experience an incalculable toll on quality of life. Dating to the introduction of the first effective therapies for mood disorders in the late 1950s and 1960s, various types of pharmacotherapy have become a mainstay for the management of mood disorders, particularly more severe, chronic, and recurrent forms of depression and most forms of bipolar disorder.