Electroconvulsive therapy or clozapine for adolescents with treatment-resistant schizophrenia: an explorative analysis on symptom dimensions

This study sought to compare pre-intervention patient characteristics and post-intervention outcomes in a naturalistic sample of adolescent inpatients with treatment-resistant psychotic symptoms who received either electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) or clozapine. Data of adolescents with schizophrenia/...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of psychiatry in clinical practice 2023-09, Vol.ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print), p.1-7
Main Authors: Tuncturk, Mustafa, Ermis, Cagatay, Buyuktaskin, Dicle, Turan, Serkan, Saglam, Yesim, Alarslan, Sezen, Guler, Duru, Sut, Ekin, Unutmaz, Guldal, Guzel, Ayse Beste, Atay Canbek, Ozge, Inal, Neslihan, Karacetin, Gul, Hazell, Philip
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Clozapine
ECT
psychosis
Schizoaffective disorder
treatment-resistant schizophrenia
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Summary:This study sought to compare pre-intervention patient characteristics and post-intervention outcomes in a naturalistic sample of adolescent inpatients with treatment-resistant psychotic symptoms who received either electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) or clozapine. Data of adolescents with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder receiving ECT or clozapine were retrospectively collected from two tertiary-care psychiatry-teaching university hospitals. Subscale scores of the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) factors were calculated according to the five-factor solution. Baseline demographics, illness characteristics, and post-intervention outcomes were compared. There was no significant difference between patients receiving ECT (n = 13) and clozapine (n = 66) in terms of age, sex, and the duration of hospital stay. The ECT group more commonly had higher overall illness and aggression severity. Smoking was less frequent in the clozapine group. Baseline resistance/excitement symptom severity was significantly higher in the ECT group, while positive, negative, affect, disorganisation, and total symptom scores were not. Both interventions provided a significant reduction in PANSS scores with large effect sizes. Both ECT and clozapine yielded high effectiveness rates in adolescents with treatment-resistant schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder. Youth receiving ECT were generally more activated than those who received clozapine.
ISSN:1365-1501
1471-1788
DOI:10.1080/13651501.2022.2160764