Enhancing the Effectiveness of Electroconvulsive Therapy in Severe Depression

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2015-04-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most powerful antidepressant treatment available and is often life-saving. There are concerns, however, that standard bitemporal ECT (the most commonly used form of ECT worldwide) causes persisting retrograde amnesia. However, clinical trials have indicated that high-dose unilateral ECT may be as effective as bitemporal ECT but have much less cognitive side-effects.

The trial aims to test the primary experimental hypothesis: High-dose (6 x ST) right unilateral ECT is as effective as (i.e. not inferior to) standard (1.5 x ST) bitemporal ECT for severe depression in terms of Hamilton Depression Rating Score (HDRS) at the end of the treatment course.

• Phase: Phase 4
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: St Patrick's Hospital, Ireland
• Collaborator: Health Research Board, Ireland
• Treatments: Anesthetics; Methohexital; Succinylcholine

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients ≥18 years diagnosed with major depressive episode (DSM-IV) and referred for ECT

Exclusion Criteria:

• Any condition rendering patients medically unfit for general anaesthesia or ECT; treatment with ECT in previous six months; dementia or other Axis 1 diagnosis; alcohol/other substance abuse in previous six months; inability/refusal to consent.