Safety and Efficacy of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) for Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD)

This is a prospective, open-label, observational study of the efficacy and safety of ECT for BPSD. There is no control or comparison group. Subjects will be compared on outcome measures pre- and post-ECT (and/or with a repeated measures design). Target sample size is 30 subjects over three years

The study population are patients whom have a diagnosis of dementia and has behavioural and psychiatric symptoms of dementia (BPSD). In this study, the participants will have already been treated with antipsychotic medications as per usual practice but still do not have adequate symptoms control. One of the options in current clinical practice is to consider Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for treatment-resistant BPSD, particularly in those with psychosis and/or substantial aggression. Therefore, the study involves offering ECT to these individuals and measuring the patient's clinical status and severity of symptoms before and after ECT treatments by using standardized rating scales. Further, background information about the patient will be collected, such as their age and medical conditions. ECT for BPSD has been done previously as reported in the medical literature. It has shown significant benefit for individuals when medication does not provide enough symptomatic relief. This research project is part of a larger multi-site study done in conjunction with Ontario Shores academic research group in Ontario, Canada. Active recruitment began in Ontario since October 2012, but our University of British Columbia (UBC) site is hoping to recruit further subjects to the total of 30 participants between the two sites.