Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto Von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.
J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2023 Apr;130(4):575-583. doi: 10.1007/s00702-023-02602-z. Epub 2023 Feb 20.
The significance of neurological soft signs (NSS) in major depressive disorder (MDD) remains unclear and the stability of NSS in relation to antidepressant treatment has never been investigated. We hypothesized that NSS are relatively stable trait markers of MDD. We thus predicted that patients show more NSS than healthy controls, irrespective of illness duration and antidepressant treatment. To test this hypothesis, NSS were assessed in chronically depressed, medicated MDD patients before (n = 23) and after (n = 18) a series of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). In addition, NSS were assessed once in acutely depressed, unmedicated MDD patients (n = 16) and healthy controls (n = 20). We found that both chronically depressed, medicated MDD patients and acutely depressed, unmedicated MDD patients showed more NSS than healthy controls. The degree of NSS in both patient groups did not differ. Importantly, we found no change in NSS after on average eleven sessions of ECT. Thus, the manifestation of NSS in MDD seems to be independent of illness duration and pharmacological and electroconvulsive antidepressant treatment. From a clinical perspective, our findings corroborate the neurological safety of ECT.
神经学软体征（NSS）在重度抑郁症（MDD）中的意义尚不清楚，且 NSS 与抗抑郁治疗的稳定性从未被研究过。我们假设 NSS 是 MDD 的相对稳定的特质标志物。因此，我们预测患者比健康对照组表现出更多的 NSS，而不论疾病持续时间和抗抑郁治疗如何。为了检验这一假设，我们在一系列电抽搐治疗（ECT）之前（n=23）和之后（n=18）对慢性抑郁、用药的 MDD 患者评估了 NSS。此外，我们还在急性抑郁、未用药的 MDD 患者（n=16）和健康对照组（n=20）中进行了一次 NSS 评估。我们发现慢性抑郁、用药的 MDD 患者和急性抑郁、未用药的 MDD 患者都比健康对照组表现出更多的 NSS。两组患者的 NSS 程度没有差异。重要的是，我们发现平均 11 次 ECT 后 NSS 没有变化。因此，MDD 中 NSS 的表现似乎独立于疾病持续时间以及药物和电抽搐抗抑郁治疗。从临床角度来看，我们的发现证实了 ECT 的神经安全性。
