In the most recent issue of ‘De Psycholoog’, the magazine of the Nederlands Instituut van Psychologen (NIP; the national professional association of psychologists), an article has been dedicated to our recently published DEC paper on cognition following ECT. The English translation of this article is as follows:
“Which patients are most likely to experience side effects after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)? Dutch scientists looked into this.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is highly effective for severe depression, but only 1.2% of patients in the Netherlands choose this treatment. Patients are concerned about potential cognitive impairments, despite research indicating ECT’s overall safety. A group of Dutch scientists set out to identify patients who might be at risk of (permanent) damage. They analyzed data from 634 depressive patients treated in five different hospitals between 2001 and 2020, with an average age of 61. Comprehensive cognitive tests were conducted before treatment, immediately after, and at three and six months.
Most cognitive tests showed that patients performed substantially worse immediately after treatment compared to before. However, this decline was found to be temporary, as scores had returned to (or above) the pre-treatment level at three and six months. The researchers then examined which patients exhibited the most decline immediately after treatment. Only age was found to be significant; factors such as the severity of depression or educational level did not matter. Younger patients were at a higher risk of temporary memory decline than older patients, as they initially scored relatively high before treatment.
These results are likely to alleviate concerns about ECT. Too bad that the study did not investigate the effect on patients’ autobiographical memory.
Source: Loef, D. e.a. (2024). Pre-treatment predictors of cognitive side-effects after treatment with electroconvulsive therapy in patients with depression: A multicenter study. Journal of Affective Disorders, doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.01.049“