The safety of the electroconvulsive therapy-escitalopram combination.
It has been suggested that the efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in the treatment of major depressive episodes may be enhanced by concurrent administration of antidepressant medication. Therefore, the issue of how safe the combination of these 2 treatment modalities is warrants investigation. Escitalopram (ESC) is a novel selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor that seems to have a favorable side effect profile. To the best of our knowledge, there is no report on the safety of the ECT-ESC combination. We report the cases of 3 female inpatients with major depressive episode--two in the context of major depressive disorder and one in the context of bipolar disorder I--who underwent ECT while concurrently receiving ESC (20 mg/d) as part of their regimen. In all cases, the combination was well tolerated, and only minimal side effects were reported.
Masdrakis
Vasilios G
VG
Department of Psychiatry, Athens University Medical School, Eginition Hospital, Athens, Greece. vmasdrakis@med.uoa.gr
Oulis
Panagiotis
P
Florakis
Andreas
A
Valamoutopoulos
Theodoros
T
Markatou
Maria
M
Papadimitriou
George N
GN
D000368:Aged; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D015283:Citalopram / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D004565:Electroconvulsive Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D012640:Seizures / Q000209:etiology; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D015283:Citalopram; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors