Baseline neuropsychological test scores did not predict electroconvulsive therapy treatment outcomes, according to a longitudinal cohort study.
“Cognitive performance at baseline does not offer a reliable basis for making clinical judgments about the likely treatment outcome of formula-based ECT,” said Dr. Tor Magne Bjølseth of Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, and his colleagues.
They studied 65 hospitalized patients aged 60-85 years with unipolar or bipolar major depression (MD). All were treated with ECT; treatments were continued until remission, plateau in benefits, or 16 sessions. The researchers used the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression to assess the patients’ treatment outcomes. Patients’ baseline cognitive levels were assessed via nine neuropsychological tests or subtests that measured information-processing speed, verbal learning and memory, and aspects of executive function.
One significant negative association was found between patients with low scores on the word reading task of the Color Word Interference Test and the odds of not achieving remission. The association suggested that patients with poorer scores on this subtest had higher odds of achieving remission during the ECT course (P = .021), but it “can most probably be attributed to a Type 1 error,” according to the researchers.
“Further research is warranted to determine whether ECT works better than antidepressants in elderly depressed patients who exhibit psychomotor retardation and deficits in memory and executive function, as our findings imply,” they concluded.
Read the full study in Journal of Affective Disorders (doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2015.06.021).