Thyrotropin-releasing hormone administration does not affect seizure threshold during electroconvulsive therapy

Cardiac safety of the electroconvulsive therapy-paliperidone combination: a preliminary study

Both electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and paliperidone (PLP) can induce, though infrequently, severe cardiac side-effects. Thus far, no studies are available on the cardiac safety of their co-administration. We report on the cardiac safety of the ECT-PLP combination in nine female inpatients who underwent this treatment modality. In a total of 83 ECT patient sessions, the ECT-PLP combination was well tolerated. No patient exhibited any noticeable prolongation of QTc interval and no adverse cardiac events, in particular arrhythmias, were noted.

Safety of the electroconvulsive therapy-ziprasidone combination

In clinical practice, a nonnegligible proportion of patients with mood or psychotic disorders undergo electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) concomitantly with pharmacotherapy. Ziprasidone, a combined serotonin and dopamine receptor antagonist, is a second-generation antipsychotic agent with a lower incidence of extrapyramidal motor symptoms and prolactin elevation and a safer profile of adverse effects on plasma lipids, glucose levels, and body weight than other antipsychotics. To the best of our knowledge, there are as yet no available reports on the safety of the ECT-ziprasidone combination. We report here on a series of 8 female inpatients who underwent ECT while receiving ziprasidone (20-80 mg/d) as part of their regimen. Seven patients were treated for major depressive episode in the context of unipolar major depressive disorder (n = 5) or of bipolar disorder I (n = 2), whereas 1 patient was treated for exacerbation of schizophrenic symptoms. In all cases, the combination was well tolerated with only minimal adverse effects and unremarkable changes in corrected QT interval.

The safety of the electroconvulsive therapy-escitalopram combination

It has been suggested that the efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in the treatment of major depressive episodes may be enhanced by concurrent administration of antidepressant medication. Therefore, the issue of how safe the combination of these 2 treatment modalities is warrants investigation. Escitalopram (ESC) is a novel selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor that seems to have a favorable side effect profile. To the best of our knowledge, there is no report on the safety of the ECT-ESC combination. We report the cases of 3 female inpatients with major depressive episode--two in the context of major depressive disorder and one in the context of bipolar disorder I--who underwent ECT while concurrently receiving ESC (20 mg/d) as part of their regimen. In all cases, the combination was well tolerated, and only minimal side effects were reported.

The safety of the electroconvulsive therapy-aripiprazole combination: four case reports

In clinical practice, a proportion of patients with psychotic or mood disorders are treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) while receiving concomitantly antipsychotic and/or other psychotropic agents. Aripiprazole is a second-generation antipsychotic that seems to have a favorable side-effect profile. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are, as yet, no available reports on the safety of ECT-aripiprazole combination. We report the cases of 4 female inpatients--3 suffering from major depression and 1 from schizophrenia--who underwent ECT--1 of them twice--while receiving aripiprazole (10-15 mg/d), as part of their regimen. In all cases, the combination was well tolerated and only minimal side effects were reported.