Author(s)

Yikun Li

Corresponding Author

Yikun Li

ABSTRACT

Modified electroconvulsive therapy (MECT), a controversial treatment of depression disorder, is the improved electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) that applies anesthetic to avoid harm to patients during the process. Electroconvulsive stimulation (ECS), the animal version of ECT, is analyzed to show the reasons that ECS can help treat depression might be the triggering of neurogenesis, or the reduction of microglial neurotoxicity. In the scope of microbiology, the antidepressant mechanism of ECS is possible due to its effect on mGluR1/5 and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors. Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) and Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA) of participants is studied to prove the efficiency of MECT. The outcome of certain studies indicates that the remission rates of patients who underwent ECT (79%) overshadows that of patients with pharmacotherapy (25-35%). Furthermore, the anesthetic in MECT can still be improved from conventional barbiturates to ketamine for patients with severe depression. The memory loss might be caused by the inflammatory cytokines derived from peripheral blood or the rearrangement of connection from the hippocampus to frontotemporal connections and the amygdala. Several studies went through a number of cases, and their result proved that the MECT not only seldomly causes serious medical events, but also becomes an ideal method for the treatment of geriatric depression. Scientists should try to unravel the whole mechanism of MECT in the human brain so that the safety of MECT can be further improved, and the number of people accepting MECT will increase as well.

KEYWORDS

Modified electroconvulsive therapy, Electroconvulsive stimulation, Depression disorder, Memory loss, Cognition