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Do Benzodiazepines Interfere with the Action of Electroconvulsive Therapy?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Samuel I. Cohen
Affiliation:
The London Hospital Medical College, Turner Street, London E1 2AD
Claire Lawton
Affiliation:
The London Hospital (St Clement's), Bow Road, London E3

Abstract

A 67-year-old anxious and depressed woman was withdrawn from a long-term course of a benzodiazepine and soon after was given ECT. This proved ineffective, but ECT given some months later was successful. It is suggested that the chronic administration of the benzodiazepine may have induced changes in the brain that interfered with ECT.

British Journal of Psychiatry (1992), 160, 545–546

Type
Brief Reports
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1992 

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References

Ashton, H. (1984) Benzodiazepine withdrawal: an unfinished story. British Medical Journal, 288, 11351140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, S. I. (1988) The pathogenesis of depersonalisation: a hypothesis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 678.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pettinati, H. M., Stephens, S. M., Willis, K. M., et al (1990) Evidence for less improvement in depression in patients taking benzodiazepines during unilateral ECT. American Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 10291035.Google ScholarPubMed
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