The safety of the electroconvulsive therapy-aripiprazole combination: four case reports.
In clinical practice, a proportion of patients with psychotic or mood disorders are treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) while receiving concomitantly antipsychotic and/or other psychotropic agents. Aripiprazole is a second-generation antipsychotic that seems to have a favorable side-effect profile. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are, as yet, no available reports on the safety of ECT-aripiprazole combination. We report the cases of 4 female inpatients--3 suffering from major depression and 1 from schizophrenia--who underwent ECT--1 of them twice--while receiving aripiprazole (10-15 mg/d), as part of their regimen. In all cases, the combination was well tolerated and only minimal side effects were reported.
Department of Psychiatry, Athens University Medical School, Eginition Hospital, Athens, Greece. vmasdrakis@med.uoa.gr
Vasilios G
VG
Masdrakis
Panagiotis
P
Oulis
Iannis M
IM
Zervas
Nikolaos A
NA
Karakatsanis
Anastasios V
AV
Kouzoupis
Evangelos
E
Karapoulios
Constantin R
CR
Soldatos
D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000068180:Aripiprazole; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000628:therapy*; D004565:Electroconvulsive Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008875:Middle Aged; D010879:Piperazines / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015363:Quinolones / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012449:Safety; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000628:therapy*
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D010879:Piperazines; D015363:Quinolones; D000068180:Aripiprazole