Tamaoki Toshio, Motohashi Nobutaka
Department of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Ethics, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine and Engineering, University of Yamanashi.
Nihon Rinsho. 2007 Sep;65(9):1655-9.
Electroconvulsive therapy(ECT) is one of the most important methods in treating depressive patients especially who can not be improved with medication. Meta analysis shows that ECT is superior to pharmacotherapy as acute treatment for depression. ECT was invented in 1938, and it took some improvement afterwards such as development of modified ECT and introduction of brief-pulse stimulation for the purpose of reducing adverse effects. However, adverse effects such as cognitive impairment are not completely solved, and some patients do not respond to ECT. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS) are under investigation to get over the shortcomings of ECT.
电休克疗法（ECT）是治疗抑郁症患者尤其是药物治疗无效患者的最重要方法之一。荟萃分析表明，ECT作为抑郁症的急性治疗方法优于药物治疗。ECT于1938年发明，此后经过了一些改进，如改良ECT的发展以及为减少不良反应而引入的短脉冲刺激。然而，认知障碍等不良反应并未完全解决，一些患者对ECT无反应。经颅磁刺激（TMS）、迷走神经刺激（VNS）和深部脑刺激（DBS）正在研究中，以克服ECT的缺点。
