ECT in Ultra-resistant Schizophrenia

The effects of the ECT in schizophrenia ultra-resistant were studied in short times (4-6 months in most studies with follow-up). The literature identified a high relapse rate of 32% in the weeks to months after ECT discontinuation. The use of the ECT in the prevention of the relapse is partially known. In an empirical way, experts recommend protocols of prevention of the relapse going from 6 to 12 months. Nevertheless, the profit of a long cure (12 months) compared with a short cure (6 months) was never determined. Therefore, the investigators decided to lead a prospective randomized controlled study in order to compare the response rates between the two strategies of clozapine and ECT combinations applied to URS patients. The treatment consisted either in a short therapy of six months or a longer course of therapy of twelve months. To the investigators' knowledge, it is the first study which compares two ECT strategies (both the short duration and the longer one) for the treatment of URS patients.