Interseizure EEG Slowing after ECT is not NCSE

摘要

In a report describing a confusional state after the course of electroconvulsive therapy in a 55-year-old depressed woman, Pogarell and co-workers present an inter-seizure EEG recording with continuing 3 cps rhythms that were blocked by the oral administration of 1 mg lorazepam. Prescription of lorazepam resulted in resolution of the patient's confusional state within a few days [10]. The authors' interpret their experience as an ECT-induced non-convulsive status epilepticus (NCSE), an untoward side-effect of the treatment. The authors may wish to consider an alternative explanation for the experience, that inter-seizure EEG high amplitude slowing with spike activity is a physiologic response to repeated induced seizures and not NCSE