title: Maintenance electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for treatment-resistant disorganized schizophrenia.
abstract: Patients who have not responded to recommended antipsychotic medications should be considered for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). However, there has been controversy about the standardized methods of continuation and maintenance ECT in the management of treatment-resistant schizophrenia. We describe a patient with a serious case of disorganized schizophrenia who had not responded well with any typical and atypical antipsychotic drug for seven years, but responded remarkably to acute ECT. Continuation ECT was necessary to sustain a positive therapeutic response. The patient showed dramatic improvement from 70 to 20 in the 18-item Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) score (71% reduction) after acute ECT and continuation ECT. Using maintenance ECT, she was able to live in the custody of her parents after 7-years hospitalization. This case report suggests that continuation and maintenance ECT benefits patients with serious cases of refractory schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuou-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan. eiji@faculty.chiba-u.jp
authors.forename: Eiji
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Masao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Imai
authors.forename: Mihisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fujisaki
authors.forename: Naoyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shinoda
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Handa
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Michiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakazato
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Masaomi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iyo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004565:Electroconvulsive Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012562:Schizophrenia, Disorganized / Q000628:therapy*