Source: Pneumologie  |  Posted 11 years ago

Resistance to medication is related to high relapse rates after successful electroconvulsive therapy in patients with major depressive disorder.

According to researchers from the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands, continued electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) may be more useful in preventing relapses than continued medication in these cases. They suggest, however, that additional research is needed.

Patients with medication-resistant major depressive disorder who initially responded to ECT were treated with continued ECT without medication for a follow-up period of six months.

Results showed a six-month relapse rate of 50 percent in this medication-resistant group.

In addition, the investigators reviewed the available literature on continued ECT and continued medication in association with resistance to medication.

They concluded that continued medication's effectiveness is related negatively to resistance to medication before ECT. It's not clear if this is true of continued ECT. "Further studies with continued ECT are urgently needed," they write.