The treatment of late age onset psychoses with electroconvulsive therapy

The authors describe the clinical course and the brain imaging findings of six patients with late age onset psychoses who were treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). In all five patients who failed to respond to ECT, one or more structural brain changes (lateral ventricular enlargement and/or subcortical structural changes) were observed. In addition, all six patients developed an interictal ECT‐induced delirium. Consistent with previous ECT‐induced delirium studies, caudate hyperintensities were present in the three patients who received brain MRI scans. The potential clinical correlates of structural brain changes in LAOP patients will be described, along with proposed areas of future research.