title: Maintenance electroconvulsive therapy in a patient with treatment-resistant paranoid schizophrenia and comorbid epilepsy.
abstract: The treatment of choice for acute schizophrenia is antipsychotic drug treatment and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and should only be considered as an option for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, where treatment with clozapine has already proven ineffective or intolerable. The use of ECT as a maintenance treatment for patients with schizophrenia and comorbid epilepsy is uncommon as scant evidence exists to support this. We describe a patient with a serious case of paranoid schizophrenia and comorbid epilepsy who had not responded to typical and atypical antipsychotic medication, but responded remarkably to acute ECT and required maintenance ECT to sustain a positive therapeutic response.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Mount Carmel Hospital, Attard, ATD 9033, Malta.
authors.forename: Beppe
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Micallef-Trigona
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Spiteri