Blogger on Hiatus Until Mid-October

 Dear blog readers,

I will be away from the blog until sometime in mid-October.

In the meantime please check PubMed for new entries and feel free to peruse the archives of this blog. (Those classics never get old!)


Thanks!


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ECT plus Antidepressants: a Review

Out on PubMed, from researchers in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, is this review: Influence of an adjuvant antidepressant on the efficacy of  electroconvulsive  therapy: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Pluijms EM, Kamperman AM, Hoogendijk WJ, Birkenhäger TK, van den Broek WW. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2020 Sep 8:4867420952543. doi: 10.1177/0004867420952543. Online ahead of print. PMID:  32900217 Here is the "Conclusion" section from the text: Our results suggest that an adjuvant antidepressant enhances the efficacy of ECT in patients with major depression. Although the included studies had some methodological limitations, effect sizes were consistently small to moderate. We speculate that modern-day controlled trials using adequately dosed TCAs and MAOIs will most likely result in larger effect sizes. From a clinical point of view, we prefer an adjuvant TCA to an adjuvant MAOI, since TCAs are generally safe to use with ECT ( American Psychiatric Association, 2001 ; ...
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A Google Trends Analysis Exploring Public Interest in Common Psychiatric Conditions and Non-Pharmacological Interventions: ECT Included

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 Out on PubMed, from authors in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Barbados, India, and Indonesia, is this article: A Google Trends analysis exploring public interest in common psychiatric conditions and non-pharmacological interventions. Minn SW, Tariq D, Ndubueze C, Paul PM, See JW. Asian J Psychiatr. 2025 Apr 2;107:104482. doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2025.104482. Online ahead of print. PMID:  40194351 The abstract is copied below: Background and objectives: To use Google Trends for analyzing public interest in common psychiatric illnesses such as Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, along with their various treatment modalities, in the United States over the past 10 years, in order to provide insights into emerging treatment modalities and their popularity among the population. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted from May 7 to June 6, 2024, using Google Trends data, specifically Relative Search Volume (RSV) from 2...
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ECT Generates a Postictal Wave of Spreading Depolarization in Mice and Humans

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 Out on PubMed, from authors in the USA, is this paper: Electroconvulsive  therapy generates a postictal wave of spreading depolarization in mice and humans. Rosenthal ZP, Majeski JB, Somarowthu A, Quinn DK, Lindquist BE, Putt ME, Karaj A, Favilla CG, Baker WB, Hosseini G, Rodriguez JP, Cristancho MA, Sheline YI, William Shuttleworth C,  Abbott CC , Yodh AG, Goldberg EM. Nat Commun. 2025 May 18;16(1):4619. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-59900-1. PMID:  40383825 The abstract is copied below: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a fast-acting, highly effective, and safe treatment for medication-resistant depression. Historically, the clinical benefits of ECT have been attributed to generating a controlled seizure; however, the underlying neurobiology is understudied and unresolved. Using optical neuroimaging of neural activity and hemodynamics in a mouse model of ECT, we demonstrated that a second brain event follows seizure: cortical spreading depolarization (CSD). We found th...
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