March 19, 2012

expert reaction to study of electroconvulsive therapy and depression

A study in the journal PNAS suggested that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) may act to treat depression by modifying the brain’s functional architecture.

David Nutt, Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology, Imperial College London, said:

“These findings make a lot of sense. Indeed, the disabling of connections between different areas of the brain is what I would have predicted from the depression literature. This is why my research group is progressing psilocybin – which also disrupts this network, as we showed in PNAS recently – as a treatment for depression.”

‘Electroconvulsive therapy reduces frontal cortical connectivity in severe depressive disorder’ by Perrin, J. et al., published in PNAS on Monday 19th March.