STUDY ON EFFECT OF PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS WITH AND WITHOUT ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY ON COGNITION.

Cognition is proven to be impaired in most of the psychiatric illnesses, and psychotropic drugs and Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) has shown various effects on different domains of cognition. This study focuses on assessment of improvement in cognitive parameters due to psychotropic drugs alone and in combination with ECT.

Methodology/ Material And Method: This prospective observational study for 6 months was carried out in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Pune, India. Subjects included were patients who were diagnosed under DSM-V criteria of psychiatric illnesses, undergoing treatment for the same since at least 6 months, and having Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of ≤24 on time of hospital admission. The Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination- Revised (ACE-R) score was used to examine the cognition during admission and twice after, at one-week interval each. The statistical inference was calculated from differences in initial and final ACE-R scores comparing two groups of patients who were- i) receiving psychotropic drug therapy alone and ii) receiving ECT along with psychotropic drug therapy.

Result: Patients who were prescribed with ECT along with Psychotropic drug therapy showed a greater difference in mean ACE-R scores (56% improvement, Mean= 25.13 ± 8.3) than patients who were on Psychotropic drugs only (46% improvement, Mean= 17.36 ± 11.3), and this difference was statistically significant [p=0.04] [p< 0.05].

Conclusion: Patients who received Electroconvulsive therapy with psychotropic drugs has shown a statistically significant difference in ACE-R scores which suggests that ECT as an augmentation, shows more and faster improvement in cognitive function than psychotropic drugs used alone.