Cerebral Blood Flow Changes: An Explanation for ECT?

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is widely used to treat psychiatric disorders, although the exact cause of its effectiveness is unknown. A new study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry investigated the changes in cerebral blood flow during acute ECT. Using positron emission tomography (PET), researchers serially quantified cerebral blood flow prior to, during, and after acute ECT in 6 depression patients. Cerebral blood flow increased during ETC, as compared to before ECT, in several parts of the brain, including the basal ganglia, brain-stem, and temporal and parietal cortices. According to researchers, these findings suggest a link between the centrencephalic system and seizure generalization. http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/abstract/190/1/63

-LS