Question:
"Cognitive impairment" after ECT treatment for depression?
Answer:
Spanish scientists have discovered that depressive patients appear to suffer
cognitive dysfunction during maintenance treatment with electroconvulsive
therapy (M-ECT). A small study published in the journal Psychological Medicine found that
depressed patients receiving this treatment experienced impairments in both
short-term memory and frontal function.
Although previous studies have shown that acute courses of ECT can lead to
adverse physical effects, this is the first report of cognitive side effects,
the researchers said.
I don't know what the point of these postings are, but Scientology
has no Scientists, they don't do studies and they do not provide
mental health care. The true science of mental health does indeed research the
subject of treatment, good and bad, and publishes the results
for criticism and further studies and actions.
In Scientology, it's all "Hubbard said" - and Hubbard did nothing
appreciable to further mental health. Scientology is now getting
to be the modern-day equivalent of homeopathy - a cultish slavery
to some old book and some old author who thought he had all the
answers.
Dianetics is class A drivel. Once you get past the lengthy
introduction to what ails man, Hubbard embarked on a farcical
affair with knitting needles and pregnant women, sprinkled
with claims of his 100% success rates, a list of curable
disease (by auditing) and a full deck of 'clears'.
Scientology is nothing more than the best brainwashing in
the business, feeding off the ready supply of emotionally
unstable quasi-religious intellectuals who think they're
something special and a little un-earthly.
Really, what have they got of note? A lot of bad press,
a short-list of actors and performers, and little else.
If they hadn't been so successful in scamming so much money,
they wouldn't exist - and fewer than the next-to-nobody
that have heard of them would be reading about them in
an encyclopedia under 'Failed Cults of the 20th century'.
Not true. They DO provide mental health care. They're just really, really, REALLY bad at it.
Care is defined by scientology as "treason". Reading what Hubbard says in his Scn technical dictionary will show better:
..."Help is the key button which admits auditing. Help is the make-break
point between sanity and insanity. That a person cannot accept help along
some minor line does not mean that he is insane, but it certainly means he
has some neurotics traits."
There is no way scientology can be a real help; help is not a system to ruin
one's client when one is honestly selling services or things.
Since day One in scientology, since hour one in most cases, scientology
seeks the ruin of the client, by OCA testing first, then, by asking him
money, more money, and asking him to make more money from others - ruining
them as well.
That's scientology help.
Background. Objective data regarding adverse cognitive deficits
associated with maintenance electroconvulsive therapy (M-ECT) are
lacking. This study examined the cognitive state of depressive
patients during M-ECT.
Method. A cross-sectional study was carried out in 11 depressive
patients in remission, all with a DSM-IV diagnosis of major depressive
disorder. The mean number of previous ECT sessions was 36·1, and the
mean intersession interval was 52·7 days. A group of 11 patients who
had not received ECT was selected for comparison and matched for
diagnosis, sex, age and years of schooling. All subjects were assessed
using a complete neuropsychological battery including memory,
attention and frontal function tests.
Results. Groups did not present differences in long delay verbal
recall. Encoding of new information and results on the frontal
function tests were significantly lower in the M-ECT patients.
Conclusion. Depressed patients preserve long-term memory, but suffer
short-term memory impairment and frontal function alteration during
M-ECT. Further longitudinal studies are necessary to determine the
influence of M-ECT on non-memory functions and different memory
subtypes.
Correspondence:
c1 Address for correspondence to: Dr Miquel Bernardo, Servicio de
Psiquiatría, Hospital Clínic, Villarroel, 170, 08015 ? Barcelona,
Spain.
My comments:
N=11, is to small a number to draw any statistical scientifically
valid conclusions at all!
I could stop there, but continous:
Cognitive impairment as a result of undergoing ECT treatment , eg,
disturbances in active shortterm memory during treatment, is a well
known sideeffect of ECT, hence nothing new here! It should be added
that active shortterm memory are not effected after treatment stops.
Hence no cognitive impairment after treatment.
My reflection:
Seems to me that the spanish group are running out of research
fundings and have to produce something in writing to maybe get som
more funding to continue their research. Nothing new, nothing of any
particular interest ( but to the antipsychiatry talibans on the
planet)and nothing at the least conclusive.
Interesting though is that long-term memory was not affected during
ECT treatment, despite the "findings" of shortterm memory "impairment"
If shorttermmemory really was impaired , so would longtime memory.
Consolidation into longterm memory was according to the article, not
affected.
