Electroconvulsive therapy is associated with increased immunoreactivity of neuroplasticity markers in the hippocampus of depressed patients.

ABSTRACT: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective therapy for depression, but its cellular effects on the human brain remain elusive. In rodents, electroconvulsive shocks increase proliferation and the expression of plasticity markers in the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG), suggesting increased neurogenesis. Furthermore, MRI studies in depressed patients have demonstrated increases in DG volume after ECT, that were notably paralleled by a decrease in depressive mood scores. Whether ECT also triggers cellular plasticity, inflammation or possibly injury in the human hippocampus, was unknown. We here performed a first explorative, anatomical study on the human post-mortem hippocampus of a unique, well-documented cohort of bipolar or unipolar depressed patients, who had received ECT in the 5 year

SUBMITTER: Loef D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10658169 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature