title: A long-term follow-up of clinical response and regional cerebral blood flow changes in depressed patients treated with ECT.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most potent therapy. We investigated the clinical response and regional cerebral blood flow changes in depressed in patients treated with (ECT) in a repeated longitudinal study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-nine patients (21 men and 28 women) with a mean age 61 years underwent ECT. Forty-one patients grading improvement after the initial ECT-series (responder group) were compared with eight, grading no improvement (non-responder group). The patients underwent neuropsychiatric ratings, measure of clinical response (defined as ≥50% reduction of pre-treatment depression score) and measure of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The responder group had an initial 60-82%, and the non-responder group a 30-64% clinical response throughout the follow-up. The non-responder group showed more reported depression (p=.003), and vegetative anxiety (p=.024), with a generally higher left temporal rCBF (p=.045).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The retrospective approach and the small sample-size.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with no subjective improvement after ECT had lesser objective clinical response, more sustained reported depression with anxiety features, and higher left temporal rCBF.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden; Department of Anaesthesia, Blekinge Hospital, SE-371 85 Karlskrona, Sweden; Department of Psychiatry, Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. Electronic address: ake.berggren@ltblekinge.se.
authors.forename: Åke
authors.initials: Å
authors.lastname: Berggren
authors.affiliation: Department of Geriatric Psychiatry, Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. Electronic address: lars.gustafson@med.lu.se.
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gustafson
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Chemistry & Pharmacology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. Electronic address: peter.hoglund@skane.se.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Höglund
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden; Department of Psychiatry, Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. Electronic address: aki.johanson@med.lu.se.
authors.forename: Aki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Johanson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D003863:Depression / Q000628:therapy; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D004565:Electroconvulsive Therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Clinical response; Electroconvulsive therapy; Follow-up; Major depression; Regional cerebral blood flow