ECT has proved effective in treating depression…

Ketamine Effective in ECT-Resistant Depression

In an abstract presented at the Society of Biological Psychiatry meeting in May, Lobna Ibrahim and Carlos Zarate of the National Institute of Mental Health reported that intravenous infusions of ketamine were effective in a majority of patients with highly treatment-resistant depression, i.e. even those who had been unresponsive to a course of electroconvulsive therapy. Editor’s note: Few treat...

Ultrasonic antidepressant therapy might be more effective than electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in treating severe depression.

ECT is widely acknowledged as an effective treatment for severe depression (I), but its drawbacks of entailing a seizure, general anesthesia, post-ictal confusion and memory disturbance can be problematical to the extent of preventing some patients from undergoing the treatments often enough to sustain relief. According to Higgins et al (2), stimulation of specific points on the surface of the ...

ECT and rTMS for depression.

Schulze-Rauschenbach et al (2005) report an interesting study comparing electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for the treatment of major depression. They conclude that both are equally efficacious, but rTMS is associated with fewer cognitive side-effects. Ultimately, a therapeutic plan that optimally helps a given individual cope with disabilit...

The Case Against Exchange Transfusion Has Yet to Be Proved

Tan et al are to be congratulated for achieving the difficult task of synthesizing the many disparate pieces of data on the subject of exchange transfusion (ET) [1]. However, we believe their conclusion that “adjunct ET cannot be recommended” should have been qualified with an acknowledgment that they have shown a “lack of evidence for benefit” rather than “evidence for lack of benefit.” The re...

Mercosul: Has Political Will Proved to Be Enough?