Despite its high effectiveness, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is not a widely used method to treat depression. One of the reasons for this could be the fear of cognitive side effects. The aim of this study was to investigate effects of ECT on cognitive function.

We conducted a prospective study with a sample size of 23 patients (10 male), who met the criteria of treatment-resistant depression according to ICD–10 and gave their informed consent for ECT treatment. Before and after ECT, the following investigations have been performed: Beck depression inventory (BDI), Montgomery-Asberg depression rating scale (MADRS), Mehrfachwahl-Wortschatz-Intelligenztest (MWT-B), trail making test (TMT) A and B, stroop-test, mini mental state examination (MMSE) and the German version of the California verbal learning test (MGT).

After ECT treatment, we found highly significant changes of depression-scales BDI (P=0.028) and MADR-Scale (P=0.001). IQ as measured by the MWT-B (P=0.851), executive functions as measured by trail making test A (P=0.568) and B (P=0.372) and stroop-test, memory functions as measured by the MGT (P=0.565) (Figure 1) and MMSE (P=0.678) did not differ significantly after ECT treatment.

There were no significant differences in cognitive function before and after ECT treatment. To confirm these findings, it would be necessary to perform larger studies.