UCSD: Refractory depression, a powerful option for magnetic convulsion therapy

In a new study published in the online edition of The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry on October 19, 2021, an international team of scientists led by Zafiris J.

ECT is an operation performed under general anesthesia.

ECT can be traced back to the 1930s

ECT usually works when other treatments are unsuccessful, but it is not effective for everyone, and some side effects may still occur, such as confusion and memory loss

MST is a different form of brain electrical stimulation that first appeared in the late 1990s

Although in previous studies, both ECT and MST (to a lesser extent) have shown immediate results in the treatment of at least some cases of acute or refractory depression, whether sustained MST can prevent mental illness We know very little about recurrence

In the latest similar study, Daskalakis and his colleagues investigated whether continued use of MST can prevent the recurrence of refractory (unipolar) major depression or bipolar depression, including symptoms of mania

The researchers recruited participants who qualified for the diagnosis and responded well to the acute phase of MST to receive continuous MST treatment

One-third of patients experienced depression relapse or required mental hospitalization, and there was no significant difference between unipolar and bipolar depression patients

The authors note that the recurrence rate of persistent MST is lower than that of studies that evaluated early one-time acute MST: 33% vs.

The author said that the scale of this study is small, but the results of the study are encouraging enough to conduct larger-scale clinical trials, especially comparing the efficacy of MST and ECT

Victor M.