Volume 4, Issue 14 , January 2014, , Pages 119-142
Abstract
Clinical and neuropsychological evidence show that patients with major depression often experience difficulties in their memory and high cortical functions after receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The aim of the study was therefore to examine side-effects of electroconvulsive therapy on the memory ...
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Clinical and neuropsychological evidence show that patients with major depression often experience difficulties in their memory and high cortical functions after receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The aim of the study was therefore to examine side-effects of electroconvulsive therapy on the memory and cognitive process of women with major depression. The study employed a causalcomparative ex post facto design. The experimental group consisted of 30 women with major depressive disorder who were selected using clinical interviews and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The control group included 30 women with major depression who matched members of the experimental group in age, education and marital status. The experimental group completed a set of memory and neuropsychiatric tests in several phases of ECT treatment, and they were re-evaluated one year later in the follow-up phase. The control group only received medication. The results from qualitative and quantitative analyses of the memory and cognitive processes in the two groups revealed that the experimental group significantly differed from the control group in every phase of ECT and even 12 month after the treatment (p<0.001)(p<0.001), and that memory and cognitive processes of members of the experimental group significantly reduced ()<0.001). The study suggests that ECT decreases the patient’smemory and high cortical functions, and that the results sustain evenafter 12 months with no ECT.
