Sustained Improvement of Fibromyalgia Syndrome After Electroconvulsive Therapy for Intractable Depression

Vázquez-Sanabria, Irma L.; Vilá, Luis M.

doi:10.1097/rhu.0000000000000386

Cited by 2 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…One study published before 1950 was excluded due to likely discrepancies from current ECT practices. Along with 16 articles from the database search, a final set of 22 studies reporting a total of 109 cases were included in this review 14–18,20,39,42,45,48,51–62 . Eleven of the studies were individual case reports, 14,17,39,42,52–54,59–62 and the other half were case series 15,16,18,20,45,48,51,55–58 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Along with 16 articles from the database search, a final set of 22 studies reporting a total of 109 cases were included in this review. [14][15][16][17][18]20,39,42,45,48,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62] Eleven of the studies were individual case reports, 14,17,39,42,[52][53][54][59][60][61][62] and the other half were case series. 15,16,18,20,45,48,51,[55][56][57][58] Four of the case series included more than 10 cases (range 13-25) 15,16,45,51 and 1 case series had case-matched controls for comparative analysis.…”

Section: Publication Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…15,16,18,20,45,48,51,[55][56][57][58] Four of the case series included more than 10 cases (range 13-25) 15,16,45,51 and 1 case series had case-matched controls for comparative analysis. 45 Publication years ranged from 1975 to 2018, and countries included U.S.A., 14,18,20,39,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59]62 Japan, 15,42,48,60,61 Puerto Rico, 17 and Finland. 16 Characteristics of the included studies are detailed in Table 2.…”

Section: Publication Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While it is expected that physical symptoms from primary psychiatric conditions (eg, somatic symptom disorder) would improve with effective psychiatric treatment with ECT, 10–13 conditions that are not deemed secondary to a psychiatric condition have shown improvement as well. Several reports have supported the clinical effectiveness of ECT for neuropathic pain 14 and fibromyalgia 15–17 . For example, a patient with chronic intractable neuropathic pain of the right upper extremity and shoulder for 10 years achieved remission of pain for 2 months after ECT, despite no significant pain relief previously with multiple pain medications and various interventional pain procedures 14 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several reports have supported the clinical effectiveness of ECT for neuropathic pain 14 and fibromyalgia. [15][16][17] For example, a patient with chronic intractable neuropathic pain of the right upper extremity and shoulder for 10 years achieved remission of pain for 2 months after ECT, despite no significant pain relief previously with multiple pain medications and various interventional pain procedures. 14 A 3-month prospective trial of ECT in 15 patients with fibromyalgia without MDD showed significantly lower pain as measured by the visual analog scale (VAS) and evaluation of tender points, which were sustained at 3month follow-ups.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Chronic pain outcomes of patients receiving electroconvulsive therapy: A systematic review and case series

Yoon

Galarneau

2023

Pain Practice

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IntroductionThe potential benefits of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in chronic pain and several theories for its mechanism have been reported in the past, but mixed findings have also been reported. In the current systematic review and case series, our primary aim was to assess whether pain and functional outcomes are improved after ECT in patients with chronic pain. Secondary objectives included examining whether psychiatric improvement, specific pain diagnoses, and demographic or medical characteristics were associated with differences in pain treatment response.MethodsWe performed a retrospective chart review to identify patients with chronic pain diagnoses for more than 3 months prior to the initiation of ECT and a systematic literature search on electronic databases for studies on chronic pain outcomes after ECT.ResultsEleven patients with various chronic pain diagnoses and comorbid psychiatric conditions were identified in the case series. Six patients reported improvement in pain while 10 patients reported improvement in mood following ECT. Systematic review identified 22 articles reporting a total of 109 cases. Eighty‐five (78%) of cases reported reduction in pain while 96.3% of the patients with a comorbid psychiatric diagnosis reported improvement in mood symptoms post‐ECT. While there was an association between improvement in mood and pain in studies with numeric ratings in both outcomes (r = 0.61; p < 0.001), some patients reported pain improvement without improvement in mood in both the case series and the pooled analysis of cases in the review. Certain pain diagnoses such as CRPS, phantom limb pain, neuropathic pain, and low back pain have consistently reported benefits and should be further studied in future studies with matched case controls.ConclusionECT may be offered to patients with certain pain conditions who have not responded sufficiently to conventional therapies, particularly when comorbid mood symptoms are present. Improved documentation practices on the outcomes in chronic pain patients receiving ECT will help generate more studies that are needed on this topic.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%