Lack of Neuronal Damage With ECT: New Study From Mexico

 Out on PubMed, from researchers in Mexico, is this study:

Neurological Damage Measured by S-100b and Neuron-Specific Enolase in Patients Treated with Electroconvulsive Therapy.

Ruiz-Chow ÁA, López-Cruz CJ, Crail-Meléndez D, Ramírez-Bermúdez J, Santos-Zambrano J, Luz-Escamilla LA.Brain Sci. 2024 Aug 16;14(8):822. doi: 10.3390/brainsci14080822.PMID: 39199513

The abstract is copied below:

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is considered one of the most effective treatments for psychiatric disorders. ECT has proven effective in the treatment of depression, mania, catatonia and psychosis. It is presumed that seizures induced during ECT administration cause toxicity and potentially neuronal and glial cell death. A broad range of neurological disorders increase cerebrospinal fluid and serum levels of neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and S-100b protein. This study aims to investigate the effect of ECT on NSE and S-100b levels, which, together, serve as a proxy for neuronal cell damage. Serum concentrations of S-100b and NSE of adult patients who received ECT were measured by immunoluminometric analysis before and after treatment. A two-way ANOVA test was used to estimate the statistical differences in marker concentrations between the subgroups of the study population. Results: A total of 55 patients were included in the analysis: 52.73% (n = 29) were diagnosed with depression, 21.82% (n = 12) with schizophrenia or other psychosis, 16.36% (n = 9) with mania and 9.09% (n = 5) with catatonia. There were no statistically significant changes in NSE (p = 0.288) and S-100b (p = 0.243) levels. We found no evidence that ECT induced neuronal damage based on NSE and S-100b protein levels measured in the serum of patients before and after treatment.

Keywords: S-100b protein; neuron-specific enolase; neuronal damage.

The article is here.

And from the text:

Here is further evidence of the brain safety of ECT.

I would have preferred the title to be "LACK of Neuronal Damage..."

Kudos to our Mexican colleagues for this helpful addition to the ECT literature.