Clinical Neuroscience of ECT (CNECT)

Out on PubMed, from authors in Germany and Australia, is this paper:  Impact of Adjunctive VNS on Drug Load, Depression Severity, and Number of Neuromodulatory Maintenance Treatments. Kavakbasi E, Bauermeister H, Lemcke L, Baune BT. Brain Sci. 2024 Feb 4;14(2):159. doi: 10.3390/brainsci14020159. PMID:  38391733 The abstract is copied below: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a long-term adjunctive treatment option in patients with difficult-to-treat depression (DTD). A total of n = 20 patients (mean age 52.6 years) were included in the multicenter, prospective, observational, naturalistic RESTORE-LIFE study and were treated with adjunctive VNS as an add-on to treatment as usual . Exploratory and secondary outcome parameters from a single center were investigated for this present analysis. The overall mean drug load slightly decreased from 4.5 at baseline to 4.4 at 12 months (Z = -0.534, p = 0.594). The drug load was lower in previous electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) responders than in non

Out on PubMed, from clinicians in Florida, is this case report:  Electroconvulsive therapy use for refractory status epilepticus in an implantable vagus nerve stimulation patient: A case report. Katzell L, Beydler EM, Holbert R, Rodriguez-Roman L, Carr BR. Front Psychiatry. 2023 Feb 3;14:1126956. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1126956. eCollection 2023. PMID:  36816412   The abstract is copied below: Introduction: Status epilepticus (SE) has a mortality rate of 20 to 50%, with acute symptomatic SE having a higher risk compared to chronic SE. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been utilized for the treatment of refractory SE with a success rate estimate of 57.9%. There are no known reported cases of concomitant use of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and ECT for the treatment of super refractory SE (SRSE) available in the literature. Case description: We present a 44-year-old female with a history of developmental delay, epilepsy, an implantable VNS for 6 years, and traumatic brain injury with s