Ect in disorganized schizophrenia

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), when used as a treatment for adolescents, shows rates of improvement for mania and depression of 80% and 63% respectively and a 42% rate of effectiveness for schizophrenia ( Rey and Walter, 1997 Rey JM Walter G Half a century of ECT use in young people. Am J Psychiatry. 1997; 154: 595-601 Crossref PubMed Scopus (215) Google Scholar ). There is scarce information about the use of ECT for the different subtypes of schizophrenia in adolescents, although it is considered to be effective in the catatonic subtype ( Takaoka and Takata, 2003 Takaoka K Takata T Catatonia in childhood and adolescence. Psychiatry Clin Neurosciences. 2003; 57: 129-137 Crossref PubMed Scopus (63) Google Scholar ). ECT is presumed to be as effective in treating adolescents as it is for adults ( Bloch et al., 2001 Bloch Y Levcovitch Y Mimouni A Mendlovic S Ratzoni G Electroconvulsive therapy in adolescents: similarities to and differences from adults. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2001; 40: 1332-1336 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (52) Google Scholar ). However, except for the studies mentioned, Medline searches show few cases of treatment of adolescents with ECT and none related to disorganized schizophrenia. We describe the cases of two adolescent patients diagnosed with hebephrenic schizophrenia who were treated effectively with ECT after exhibiting no response to antipsychotic treatment.