Retrospective analysis of electroconvulsive therapy in treatment-resistant schizophrenia

Objectives.
This study aims to analyse the effectiveness of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, based on the experience of the Department of Adult Psychiatry, Poznań University of Medical Sciences.

Material and methods.
The study included 39 patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia who were treated with ECT at the Department of Adult Psychiatry, Poznań University of Medical Sciences between 2000 and 2022. The group included 30 women and 9 men aged 19–74 years (mean 39±11) who received at least 7 ECT sessions. The efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy was assessed using the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale – clinical status before treatment and improvement after treatment.

Results.
In the whole group, the median value in the CGI score before treatment was 6 points, which corresponds to a heavy intensification of clinical symptoms. This value was observed in 34 of 39 patients (87%). The median value in CGI improvement score – that is, the effectiveness of treatment – in all the patients treated for schizophrenia with ECT was 2 points, which may indicate the high effectiveness of the method. The most observed value in the CGI improvement scale was 1 point. This value was observed in 19 of 39 patients (46%). The effectiveness of ECT is negatively correlated with a larger number of hospitalisations. The effectiveness of ECT was not correlated with the type of antipsychotic treatment.

Conclusions.
These results confirm data from the literature indicating that ECT therapy is effective for treatment-resistant schizophrenia.