Cognitive Effects of Electroconvulsive Therapy in Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review.

Objective: To determine the objective cognitive effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS).Data Sources: A database search of MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Embase was conducted on September 22, 2022, using the search terms "schizophrenia" and "electroconvulsive therapy." The search was limited to the articles published from 1985 to present, in English, and human studies.Study Selection: A total of 4293 articles were identified. After screening by title and full text, 17 articles met eligibility criteria. Controlled, open-label, and retrospective studies of acute, maintenance, or continuation ECT were included. An objective cognitive measure(s) had to be the primary or secondary outcome of the study, with no other interventions administered, besides standard-of-care treatment (ie, antipsychotics).Data Extraction: Data regarding the study design, type of ECT provided, cognitive outcome measures, and change in cognitive performance pre- to post-ECT were extracted. Results are presented as a narrative review.Results: Overall, ECT was not associated with any significant cognitive deficits in participants with TRS across the domains of global cognition, attention, language, visuospatial function, and executive function. Findings for immediate effects on memory were equivocal, but the majority of studies found no change or an improvement in memory after treatment.Conclusions: The current evidence supports the conclusion that ECT does not have negative long-term effects on cognition among patients with TRS. Larger, sham-controlled trials are needed to support these conclusions. All studies in this review assessed ECT adjunct to antipsychotics; therefore, the cognitive effects of ECT independent of antipsychotics remain unclear.

Assessment of anxiety in children with neurodevelopment disorders: Rasch analysis of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale.

Anxiety is common in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). The parent version of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS-P) is a widely used measure to assess anxiety across a broad range of childhood populations. However, assessment of the measurement properties of the SCAS-P in NDDs have been limited. The present study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the SCAS-P in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using Rasch Measurement Theory. Data from the Province of Ontario Neurodevelopmental Disorders Network Registry were used in the analysis. Children (ages 6-13 years old) with a primary diagnosis of ADHD (n=146) or ASD (n=104) were administered the SCAS-P. Rasch Measurement Theory was used to assess measurement properties of the SCAS-P, including unidimensionality and item-level fit, category ordering, item targeting, person separation index and reliability and differential item functioning. The SCAS-P fit well to the Rasch model in both ADHD and ASD, including unidimensionality, satisfactory category ordering and goodness-of-fit. However, item-person measures showed poor precision at lower levels of anxiety. Some items showed differential item functioning, including items within the obsessive-compulsive, panic/agoraphobia and physical injury fears domains, suggesting that the presentation of anxiety may differ between ADHD and ASD. Overall, the results generally support the use of the SCAS-P to screen and monitor anxiety symptoms in children with ADHD and ASD. Future studies would benefit from examination of more severely anxious NDD cohort, including those with clinically diagnosed anxiety.

Harmonizing data on correlates of sleep in children within and across neurodevelopmental disorders: lessons learned from an Ontario Brain Institute cross-program collaboration.

There is an increasing desire to study neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) together to understand commonalities to develop generic health promotion strategies and improve clinical treatment. Common data elements (CDEs) collected across studies involving children with NDDs afford an opportunity to answer clinically meaningful questions. We undertook a retrospective, secondary analysis of data pertaining to sleep in children with different NDDs collected through various research studies. The objective of this paper is to share lessons learned for data management, collation, and harmonization from a sleep study in children within and across NDDs from large, collaborative research networks in the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI). Three collaborative research networks contributed demographic data and data pertaining to sleep, internalizing symptoms, health-related quality of life, and severity of disorder for children with six different NDDs: autism spectrum disorder; attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder; obsessive compulsive disorder; intellectual disability; cerebral palsy; and epilepsy. Procedures for data harmonization, derivations, and merging were shared and examples pertaining to severity of disorder and sleep disturbances were described in detail. Important lessons emerged from data harmonizing procedures: prioritizing the collection of CDEs to ensure data completeness; ensuring unprocessed data are uploaded for harmonization in order to facilitate timely analytic procedures; the value of maintaining variable naming that is consistent with data dictionaries at time of project validation; and the value of regular meetings with the research networks to discuss and overcome challenges with data harmonization. Buy-in from all research networks involved at study inception and oversight from a centralized infrastructure (OBI) identified the importance of collaboration to collect CDEs and facilitate data harmonization to improve outcomes for children with NDDs.