• J Formos Med Assoc · Jul 2024

    Clinical Trial

    Effect of cranial electrotherapy stimulation as an add-on therapy on late-life generalized anxiety disorder: An open-label study.

    • Che-Sheng Chu, Cheng-Ho Chang, Chih-Chuan Pan, Yung-Chih Chiang, Hsin-Ya Kuo, Tien-Wei Hsu, Shiou-Lan Chen, and Cheng-Sheng Chen.
    • Department of Psychiatry, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Non-invasive Neuromodulation Consortium for Mental Disorders, Society of Psychophysiology, Taipei, Taiwan.
    • J Formos Med Assoc. 2024 Jul 1; 123 (7): 781787781-787.

    IntroductionCranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) is beneficial in reducing anxiety in psychiatric patients. However, no studies have reported on elderly patients with generalized anxiety disorders (GAD). This study aimed to determine the efficacy and safety of a 6-week CES intervention for late-life GAD.Materials And MethodsThis single-arm pilot study assessed 6-week CES treatment (Alpha-Stim AID) for late-life GAD and 4-week follow-up post intervention. The Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAMA) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were used as baseline and outcome measures at weeks 4, 6, and 10, respectively. Treatment response was defined as 50 % or more reduction of the HAMA score and remission was defined as a of score ≤7 on the HAMA. Other measures included depression, sleep quality, and quality of life assessment.ResultsWe included participants (n = 27) aged 68.0 ± 5.0 years, 81.5 % of whom were female. Fifteen (55.6 %), 18 (66.7 %), and 15 (55.6 %) patients were concurrently treated with antidepressants, BZDs, and antipsychotics, respectively. Intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis revealed a significant decrease in HAMA scores from baseline (20.96 ± 3.30) to week 6 (12.26 ± 7.09) and one-month (12.85 ± 7.08) follow-up at W10 (all p < 0.001). The response and remission rates were 33.3 %, 40.7 %, and 48.1 % and 25.9 %, 29.6 %, and 25.9 % at W4, W6, and W10, respectively. The CES improved depression and sleep conditions as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory-II and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.ConclusionCES clinically reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression and may improve sleep quality in late-life GAD. Future randomized controlled study is needed.Copyright © 2024 Formosan Medical Association. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…