ECT Reduces Executive Control Deficit: New Study From China

Out on PubMed, from China, is this study:

Cognitive Considerations in Major Depression: Evaluating the Effects of Pharmacotherapy and ECT on Mood and Executive Control Deficits.

Spagna A, Wang J, Rosario IE, Zhang L, Zu M, Wang K, Tian Y.Brain Sci. 2022 Mar 4;12(3):350. doi: 10.3390/brainsci12030350.

PMID: 35326307 

The abstract is copied below:

Deficits in the executive control of attention greatly impact the quality of life of patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, attentional deficits are often underemphasized in clinical contexts compared with mood-based symptoms, and a comprehensive approach for specifically evaluating and treating them has yet to be developed. The present study evaluates the efficacy of bifrontal electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) combined with drug therapy (DT) in alleviating mood-related symptomatology and executive control deficits in drug-refractory MDD patients and compares these effects with those observed in MDD patients undergoing DT only. The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression and the Lateralized Attentional Network Test-Revised were administered across two test sessions to assess treatment-related changes in mood-based symptoms and conflict processing, respectively, in patients undergoing ECT + DT (n = 23), patients undergoing DT (n = 33), and healthy controls (n = 40). Although both groups showed an improvement in mood-based symptoms following treatment and a deficit in conflict processing estimated on error rate, a post-treatment reduction of an executive control deficit estimated on RT was solely observed in the ECT + DT patient group. Furthermore, Bayesian correlational analyses confirmed the dissociation of mood-related symptoms and of executive control measures, supporting existing literature proposing that attentional deficits and mood symptoms are independent aspects of MDD. The cognitive profile of MDD includes executive control deficits, and while both treatments improved mood-based symptoms, only ECT + DT exerted an effect on both measures of the executive control deficit. Our findings highlight the importance of considering the improvement in both mood and cognitive deficits when determining the efficacy of therapeutic approaches for MDD.

Keywords: attention; electroconvulsive therapy; major depression.

The article is here.

And from the text:

This is a study using a cognitive computer task to assess "attention deficit," "executive  control deficits," and "conflict effect" in depressed patients who then received antidepressant medication, or ECT plus antidepressant medication, compared with healthy controls. The authors assert that these cognitive symptoms are both important in depression and independent of mood symptoms. The statistical analyses are very complex, as are the figures.

I will withhold judgment as to whether these findings are of significant theoretical or clinical value. Of course, replication is the first step...

A full read, recommended only for neuropsychology students and scholars will be ~25 minutes.