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One‐year follow‐up of continuation convulsive therapy prescribed for depressed elderly patients
Author(s) -
Mirchandani Indu C.,
Abrams Robert C.,
Young Robert C.,
Alexopoulos George S.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.930090107
Subject(s) - pharmacotherapy , continuation , depression (economics) , medicine , chronic depression , pediatrics , electroconvulsive therapy , psychiatry , cognition , computer science , economics , macroeconomics , programming language
Nine elderly patients with major depression were followed for outcome of continuation ECT. All nine patients had poor response to pharmacotherapy of the index episode, favorable response to acute treatment with ECT and, to varying degrees, previous failure of prophylactic pharmacotherapy. Four of the nine patients complied with continuation ECT as recommended for periods of 9 months to 1 year; these patients remained essentially well during the follow‐up period, while the five who stopped the treatment prematurely fared poorly (one died, one required chronic hospitalization and three where rehospitalized acutely). These findings suggest the need for controlled studies of continuation ECT in geriatric depression.