Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T08:07:42.956Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Changes in Mood, Appetite and Psychomotor Retardation in Depressed Patients Given ECT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

S. M. Browning*
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Research Unit, Littlemore Hospital, Littlemore, Oxford OX4 4XN
P. J. Cowen
Affiliation:
MRC Unit of Clinical Pharmacology and University Department of Psychiatry, Research Unit, Littlemore Hospital, Littlemore, Oxford OX4 4XN
*
Correspondence

Extract

Clinical experience suggests that treatment with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) produces an early improvement in psychomotor retardation. Warnings have been given of the increased risk of suicide when ECT-treated patients recover motor activity before their depressed mood is alleviated (Slater & Roth, 1977).

Type
Brief Reports
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Present address: Department of Mental Health, University of Bristol, 41 St Michael's Hill, Bristol BS2 8DZ.

References

Äsberg, M., Kragh-Sorensen, P., Mindham, R. H. S. & Tuck, J. R. (1973) International reliability and communicability of a rating scale for depression. Psychological Medicine, 3, 458465.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Costain, D. W., Cowen, P. J., Gelder, M. G. & Grahame-Smith, D. G. (1982) Electroconvulsive therapy and the brain: evidence for increased dopamine-mediated responses. The Lancet, ii, 400404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowen, P. J., Nutt, D. J. & Green, A. R. (1980) Enhanced 5-hydroxytryptamine and dopamine-mediated behavioural responses following convulsions: II. The effects of anaesthesia and current conditions on the appearance of the enhanced responses following electroconvulsive shock. Neuropharmacology. 19, 901906.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hibbert, G. A., Teasdale, J. D. & Spencer, P. (1984) Covariation of depressive symptoms over time. Psychological Medicine. 14, 451455.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendell, R. E. (1981) The present status of electroconvulsive therapy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 265283.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Montgomery, S. A. & Äsberg, M. (1979) A new depression scale designed to be sensitive to change. British Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 382389.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paul, S. M., Extein, I., Calil, H. M., Potter, W. Z., Chodoff, P. & Goodwin, F. K. (1981) Use of ECT with treatment-resistant depressed patients at the National Institute of Mental Health. American Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 486489.Google ScholarPubMed
Russell, G. (1960) Body weight and balance of water, sodium and potassium in depressed patients given ECT. Clinical Science, 19, 327336.Google Scholar
Slater, E. & Roth, M. (1977) Clinical Psychiatry (3rd ed.) London: Baillere Tindall.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J., Robins, E., Kiriansky, J. & Gurland, B. (1975) Preliminary report of reliability of research diagnostic criteria applied to psychiatric case records. In Predictability in Psychopharmacology: Preclinical and Clinical Correlations (eds Sudilowsky, A. & Gerson, B.). New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Ungerstedt, U. (1979) Central dopamine mechanisms and unconditioned behaviour. In The Neurobiology of Dopamine (eds Horn, A. S., Korf, J. & Westernik, B. U.). London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.