The acute and medium-term effects of treatment with electroconvulsive therapy on memory in patients with major depressive disorder.
BACKGROUND
Current literature provides insufficient information on the degree of cognitive impairment during and after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), mostly due to the fact that applied tests lacked sensitivity and flexibility. Our goal was to evaluate cognitive functioning in adult depressed patients treated with bi-temporal ECT, using tests sensitive for detection of possible acute and medium-term memory changes.


METHODS
Thirty adult patients with major depressive disorder, treated with a course of bi-temporal ECT, underwent clinical and cognitive measurements three times: at baseline, immediately after a course of ECT, and 1 month later. For cognition assessment, we used learning and visual, spatial and figural memory tests from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB).


RESULTS
Bi-temporal ECT has proven to be an effective treatment. The linear mixed model, used to analyze changes in depression severity and patients' cognitive performances over time and to assess dynamic correlations between aforementioned features, did not show any significant memory impairment as a potential acute or medium-term ECT effect. However, it yielded significant improvement on visual memory and learning at the follow-up, which positively correlated with the improvement of depression.


CONCLUSIONS
Good progress is being made in the search for ECT-related acute and medium-term cognitive side-effects by using the tests sensitive to detect memory dysfunction with parallel forms of the tasks (to counter practice effects on repeat testing). Our results on learning and memory in relation to ECT during treatment of depression did not bring forth any prolonged and significant bi-temporal ECT-related memory deficit.
School of Medicine,University of Belgrade,Dr Subotica 8,Belgrade,Serbia.
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Maric
Clinic for Psychiatry,Military Medical Academy,Belgrade,Serbia.
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Stojanovic
School of Medicine,University of Belgrade,Dr Subotica 8,Belgrade,Serbia.
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Andric
School of Medicine,University of Belgrade,Dr Subotica 8,Belgrade,Serbia.
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Soldatovic
Clinic for Psychiatry,Military Medical Academy,Belgrade,Serbia.
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Dolic
Clinic for Psychiatry,Military Medical Academy,Belgrade,Serbia.
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Z
Spiric
D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D004565:Electroconvulsive Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome
CANTAB; depression; electroconvulsive therapy; learning; memory