Electroshock Resurrected OUPblog, New York - Nov 17, 2008 He is the author of Electroconvulsive Therapy: A Guide for Professionals and Their Patients, the latest guide to ECT. It carefully explains where in the ...
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Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: permanent + amnesia + therapy Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/5/2008)
Yesterday's gone: Beki's life Denver Post, CO - Aug 3, 2008 Doctors call it transient epileptic amnesia. It is not unusual for seizures to leave cognitive function intact while disabling a sufferer's ability to ...
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Zimbabwe or Empire? Where?s the Sham Here? The People's Voice, TN - Aug 3, 2008 And the Western powers are hypocritically and with convenient amnesia all over mass marketed news programs. The US State Department says recent elections in ...
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Beyond rhetoric Manila Standard Today, Philippines - Jul 27, 2008 We?re a people renowned for having short-term memory but that doesn?t mean we suffer from permanent amnesia. The ugly feelings caused by all the previous ...
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Health & Fitness : What Causes Short Term Memory And Long Term ... Prudent Press Agency (press release), Netherlands - Jul 31, 2008 (Prudent Press Agency)---Memory loss or amnesia is an uncommon forgetfulness that can happen due to brain damage. Illness, injury or extreme mental distress ...
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Duped Darwin sons were the real victims, judge says Times Online, UK - Jul 23, 2008 It is believed, however, that he came back to Britain only so that he could resurrect his real identity and thus obtain a permanent visa for Panama The ...
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The Effects of Electroconvulsive Therapy on Memory of Autobiographical and Public Events - SH Lisanby, JH Maddox, J Prudic, DP Devanand, HA … - Archives of General Psychiatry, 2000 - archpsyc.highwire.org ... adverse effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) limit ... 2-6 Retrograde amnesia usually
improves during the ... is incomplete, with permanentamnesia for events ... -
Does Brief-Pulse ECT Cause Persistent or Permanent Memory Impairment? - R Abrams - The Journal of ECT, 2002 - ectjournal.com ... ECT can result in persistent or permanent memory loss ... some patients may experience
persistent amnesia extending several ... only to sine-wave therapy because the ...
Memory and ECT: From Polarization to Reconciliation. - HA Sackeim - The Journal of ECT, 2000 - ectjournal.com ... Discussions of the cognitive effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) have been ...
Others contend that profound and permanentamnesia is common and a clear sign ...
Observations during transient global amnesia. A behavioural and neuropsychological study of five … - JR Hodges, CD Ward - Brain and Behaviour: Critical Concepts in Psychology, 2000 - books.google.com ... During recovery from TGA there was progressive shrinkage of retro- grade amnesia
but a permanent short retrograde gap of around 1 h remained in all cases. ...
[CITATION] Memory: Disturbances and therapy HJ Markowitsch - Neurological disorders; Course and treatment, 2003 -
The amnesia of transient global amnesia RS Wilson, W Roller, MP Kelly - Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 1980 - informaworld.com ... would be consistent with the permanent loss of ... PC, & Chace, PM Retrograde amnesia:
Temporal gradient ... very long-term memory following electroconvulsive therapy. ...
Amnesia. - DF BENSON - Southern Medical Journal, 1978 - smajournalonline.com ... and, despite recent advances in psychiatric therapy, remains a major ... picture is that
of a true amnesia which is ... contains very few cases of permanent memory loss ...
Regressive electric shock therapy BC Glueck, H Reiss, LE Bernard - Psychiatric Quarterly, 1957 - Springer ... 122 REGRESSIVE ELECTRIC SHOCK THERAPY... to about, a year before REST; with the passage
of time., it gradually shrinks, usually leaving a permanentamnesia of two ...
Memory and cognitive effects of ECT: informing and assessing patients - H Robertson, R Pryor - Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 2006 - RCP ... past few years electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has ... and effective method for assessing
retrograde amnesia. ... patients of the possible permanent adverse effects of ...
Memory Functions as Affected by Electroconvulsive Therapy a - LR SQUIRE - Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1986 - Blackwell Synergy ... testing methods will some day reveal a greater degree of permanent memory loss ... Cognitive
consequences of low dosage electroconvulsive therapy. Ann. ... In Amnesia. ...
Article Date: 22 Dec 2006 - 0:00 PST
In a stunning reversal, an article in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology in January 2007 by prominent researcher Harold Sackeim of Columbia University reveals that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) causes permanent amnesia and permanent deficits in cognitive abilities, which affect individuals' ability to function.
"This study provides the first evidence in a large, prospective sample that adverse cognitive effects can persist for an extended period, and that they characterize routine treatment with ECT in community settings," the study notes.
For the past 25 years, ECT patients were told by Sackeim, the nation's top ECT researcher, that the controversial treatment doesn't cause permanent amnesia and, in fact, improves memory and increases intelligence. Psychologist Sackeim also taught a generation of ECT practitioners that permanent amnesia from ECT is so rare that it could not be studied. He asserted that most people who said the treatment erased years of memory were mentally ill and thus not credible.
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The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that more than 3 million people have received ECT over the past generation. "Those patients who reported permanent adverse effects on cognition have now had their experiences validated," said Linda Andre, head of the Committee for Truth in Psychiatry, a national organization of ECT recipients.
Since the mid-1980s, Sackeim worked as a consultant to the ECT device manufacturer Mecta Corp. He never revealed his financial interest in ECT to NIMH, as required by federal law, and, until 2002, did not reveal it to New York officials as required by state law. Neuropsychopharmacology has endured negative publicity over its failure to disclose financial conflicts of journal authors, resulting in the editor's resignation and a promise to disclose such conflicts in the future; yet there is no disclosure of Sackeim's long-term relationship with Mecta, nor did Sackeim disclose his financial conflict when his NIMH grant was renewed to 2009 at approximately $500,000 per year.
The six-month study followed about 250 patients in New York City hospitals, an unusually large number; most ECT studies are based on 20 to 30 patients. Sackeim's previously published studies were short term, making it impossible to assess long-term effects. "However, in other contexts over the years -- court depositions, communications with mental health officials, and grant protocols -- Sackeim has claimed to follow up patients for as long as five years. This raises serious questions as to how long he has actually known of the existence and prevalence of permanent amnesia and why it wasn't revealed until now," Andre said.
Besides finding that ECT routinely causes substantial and permanent amnesia, the study contradicts Sackeim's oft-published statements that ECT increases intelligence and that patients who report permanent adverse effects are mentally ill.
"The study is a stunning self-repudiation of a 25-year career," Andre said.
New Hope For Depression Suffers: Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Improves Quality Of Life For At Least Six Months For 78% Of Study.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) ��" shock treatment ��"improves quality of life in patients with major depression, and that improved quality of life continues for six months, according to a report in the February Journal of Affective Disorders.
The study was conducted in seven hospitals in New York City ��" two private psychiatric hospitals, three community hospitals and two academic medical centers, said W. Vaughn McCall, M.D., M.S., the lead author and professor and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
"This study adds to the accumulating evidence that ECT is associated with a net health benefit in depressed patients who attain and sustain remission," wrote McCall and colleagues. ECT has long been known to be an effective treatment for major depression.
The results from 283 severely depressed patients at the seven New York City hospitals confirm results from an earlier study McCall did of 77 ECT patients at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, a study that was published in the November 2004 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.
In that study, he said, "Quality of life and function are improved in ECT patients as early as two weeks after the conclusion of ECT." In the new study, the psychiatrists said, "ECT is associated with improved health-related quality of life in the short term and the long term." Most of the improvements were largely explained by the control of depressive symptoms, McCall said.
ECT is a treatment for severe mental illness, especially major depression, in which a brief application of electric stimulus ��" a shock ��" is used to produce a generalized seizure. Doctors administer ECT after the patient has been given both an anesthetic and a muscle relaxant.
Before the ECT treatment, the authors said, health-related quality of life was very low.
The team measured quality of life with a tool called Medical Outcomes Study Short Form before ECT, several days after ECT, and again 24 weeks later. Before the ECT treatment, the authors said, health-related quality of life was very low: for example a measure called "vitality" was 20.4, "social functioning" was 22.8, and "emotional" was 6.4. Six months later, vitality was 40.1, social functioning was 55.2 and emotional was 42.8.
"All these scales have a range of scores from 0 to 100 with 100 being fully functional and zero indicating a complete deficit," McCall said.
Overall, at 24 weeks, 78 percent of the patients had improved quality of life. While the study did not extend beyond six months, McCall said that in earlier studies he reported improvements in quality of life persist for a year in most patients after ECT.
McCall said the evidence from the current study and his earlier ones at Wake Forest counters the argument of those who would like to severely restrict ECT.
"Some agencies have recommended that ECT be restricted in use because of perceived gaps in knowledge regarding it effects of health-related quality of life," McCall said. He noted that the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in the United Kingdom recommended limits on ECT, pending more information, especially on the impact of ECT on quality of life.
"Our results indicate that a restrictive public policy toward ECT is not warranted on the basis of the effect of ECT on quality of life," McCall said.
He said there were side effects to ECT. Most patients experience temporary learning difficulties for up to two weeks after ECT. Permanent memory loss of the events in the few months preceding ECT is also common, he said.
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Media Contacts: Robert Conn, rconn@wfubmc.edu, Shannon Koontz, shkoontz@wfubmc.edu, or Karen Richardson, krchrdsn@wfubmc.edu, at (336) 716-4587.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university's School of Medicine. The system comprises 1,187 acute care, psychiatric, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and is consistently ranked as one of "America's Best Hospitals" by U.S. News & World Report.
Testing of new procedure for patients with major depression
New technology could be first available non-drug procedure to treat depression since the 1930s -
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), a non-invasive technique that uses repeated short bursts of magnetic energy to stimulate nerve cells in the brain, is now being tested at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine as a potential treatment for participants with major depression. Northwestern will be one of 16 centers participating in the nationwide clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of TMS on participants who have not responded to antidepressant medications during efforts to manage their depression.
"Through this trial we hope to prove the effectiveness of TMS as a treatment alternative for major depression," said Dr. William Gilmer, psychiatrist at Northwestern Memorial, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and principal investigator for the Northwestern site. "We hope this treatment can provide another option to patients who haven't found success with many of the antidepressant medications currently available."
TMS produces about the same amount of magnetic energy as a standard MRI machine and works by sending pulses of magnetic energy aimed specifically at a portion of the brain called the left prefrontal cortex, which is thought to be involved with mood regulation.
The nature of magnetic fields allows the special pulses of energy to easily pass through the skull and into the brain. Once inside the brain, the magnetic pulses produce an electric field, which is thought to cause positive changes in mood. Participants remain fully awake during the 45 minute outpatient procedure and can resume their normal daily activities after the procedure. A TMS procedure is in no way similar to an electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) procedure - which requires a patient to receive anesthesia.
"The objective of TMS is to stimulate the "mood circuits" without causing a seizure. The stimulation applied to the brain is very focused, thereby reducing the risk of adverse effects, especially in comparison to ECT" Gilmer said.
This trial will involve an inactive (or sham) procedure to confirm if the antidepressant effect of TMS is real and durable and to identify participants who may improve simply because of the added attention they get in a research study, the so-called placebo effect. Neither the doctor nor participant will know which treatment - the active TMS or the sham - is being given since the sham device looks, acts and sounds like the real thing.
Smaller preliminary studies have encouraged researchers that TMS may produce an antidepressant effect. This larger and more rigorous trial will compare the effects of TMS on mood as compared to placebo and the information will be provided to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to support regulatory clearance of the Neuronetics TMS System for clinical use in the treatment of major depression. If TMS is cleared by the FDA, it would be the first available non-drug procedure for depression since the introduction of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was first used in the 1930's.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is already in use for brain mapping studies, diagnosis of neurological diseases and for research into a number of neurological and psychiatric conditions.
The Northwestern research study will be open to participants who are 18 to 70 years old, have been diagnosed with major depression as defined by the DSM-IV and have demonstrated resistance to antidepressant medications. Individuals who fit the criteria and are interested in participating can call Northwestern Memorial Hospital's physician referral department at 312/926-8400.
About Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) is one of the country's premier academic medical centers and is the primary teaching hospital of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Northwestern Memorial and its Prentice Women's Hospital and Stone Institute of Psychiatry have 744 beds and more than 1,200 affiliated physicians and 6,000 employees. Providing state-of-the-art care, NMH is recognized for its outstanding clinical and surgical advancements in such areas as cardiothoracic and vascular care, gastroenterology, neurology and neurosurgery, oncology, organ and bone marrow transplantation, and women's health.
Northwestern Memorial was ranked as the nation's 5th best hospital by the 2002 Consumer Checkbook survey of the nation's physicians and is listed in eight specialties in this year's US News & World Report's issue of "America's Best Hospitals." NMH is also cited as one of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" by Working Mother magazine and has been chosen by Chicagoans year after year as their "most preferred hospital" in National Research Corporation's annual survey.
About Neuronetics, Inc.
The study is being sponsored by Neuronetics, Inc., a medical device company in Malvern, PA, that is focused on developing non-invasive therapies for psychiatric and neurological disorders. For more information on Neuronetics: http://www.neuronetics.com or trialinfo@neuronetics.com; 610.640.4202, ext. 1020.
Moderate To Severe Depression - Antidepressants And Electroconvulsive Therapy Are Best Treatment Options
Despite public and professional misgivings, antidepressants and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) are the most effective treatments for moderate to severe depression, state the authors of a Seminar in this week's issue of The Lancet.
Klaus Ebmeier (University of Edinburgh, UK) and colleagues reviewed recent developments and current controversies in depression. They state that while psychotherapies are now generally recommended for the treatment of milder depression or as an adjunct to antidepressant drugs in more severe illness, drug treatments remain the mainstay of antidepressant therapy. ECT, they add, remains the most effective treatment for depression, especially if patients present with psychotic symptoms, such as delusions and hallucinations.
Professor Ebmeier states: "Recent moral panics about suicidal effects and dependence-inducing potential of antidepressants have tilted the balance of publicly perceived risk against them, but both their effectiveness and their ready availability make them the likely choice for most patients."
In an accompanying editorial The Lancet comments: "Depression affects around one in six people in the USA at some time in their lives, and may double their chance of death. These figures are similar for other developed countries and are compounded by the fact that over 50% of people with depression will become functionally impaired because of their illness. Sadly, for many people a diagnosis of depression is made worse by the social stigma that still clings to all mental-health diagnoses, by difficulties in accessing treatment options, and by confusion about which treatments work and which may make their problems worse."
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