Impact of psychotic symptoms in functionality and quality of life of major depression patients in maintenance/continuation eletroconvulsive therapy (M/C ECT)

Abstract

Introduction

Psychotic depression has a higher rate of disability and relapse than non psychotic depression, however the optimal maintenance treatment after an acute response to either the antidepressant/antipsychotic combination or an ECT course is unclear (Rothschild, 2013). Although ECT is an effective therapy in affective disorders and M/C ECT is used to achieve and maintain patient's stability (Brown, 2014), very little is known about its implications in functionality or quality of life.

Objectives

To study the relation between psychotic symptoms and functionality and quality of life in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) undergoing M/C ECT.

Methodology

Transversal descriptive study of a sample of 17 MDD patients in M/C ECT. Administration of SF-36 (quality of life related to health), FAQ (functionality), Family APGAR, MMSE, GAF, HDRS. Informed consent. Statistical analysis with SPSS18.

Results

The mean age of the sample was 72.47 years, 58.8% presented with psychotic symptoms and 41.2% with melancholic symptoms. We only found a statistically significant negative correlation between the Family APGAR and the presence of psychotic symptoms (U = –2.291, P = 0.025), without other differences in terms of functionality or quality of life.

Conclusions

This study supports that there is no implication in the presence of psychotic symptoms regarding functionality or quality of life among the patients undergoing M/C ECT. We emphasize the need for randomized control trials to disentangle the effects of multiple variables on the functionality and quality of life of patients in M/C ECT.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.