Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry (생물정신의학)

The Korean Society of Biological Psychiatry (대한생물정신의학회)
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Electroconvulsive Therapy for CRPS

복합부위통증증후군 환자에서의 전기경련요법

  • Lee, Jong-Ha (Department of Psychiatry, Ansan Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine) ;
  • Ko, Young-Hoon (Department of Psychiatry, Ansan Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine) ;
  • Yang, Jong-Yeun (Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Korea University Ansan Hospital) ;
  • Kim, Yong-Ku (Department of Psychiatry, Ansan Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine) ;
  • Han, Chang-Soo (Department of Psychiatry, Ansan Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine) ;
  • Youn, Hyun-Chul (Department of Psychiatry, Ansan Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine)
  • 이종하 (고려대학교 의과대학 정신과학교실) ;
  • 고영훈 (고려대학교 의과대학 정신과학교실) ;
  • 양종윤 (고려대학교 안산병원 마취통증의학과) ;
  • 김용구 (고려대학교 의과대학 정신과학교실) ;
  • 한창수 (고려대학교 의과대학 정신과학교실) ;
  • 윤현철 (고려대학교 의과대학 정신과학교실)
  • Received : 2011.04.04
  • Accepted : 2011.05.16
  • Published : 2011.08.31
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Abstract

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a disease that causes chronic spontaneous pain and hyperesthesia of one or more parts of legs and arms, which is accompanied with problems of the automatic nervous system or the motor nervous system. However, up to date, it is unclear what causes the syndrome and how to diagnose and treat it. Although several treatments including medication and sympathetic nerve block are performed against CRPS, the therapeutic effect of the treatments is limited. The electroconvulsive thera-py (ECT), of which the mechanism is not clarified, is a treatment used for treatment-resistant depression. ECT is also reported to be effective against pain. Therefore, we performed the ECT for a 24-year-old female patient who has been diagnosed as CRPS. Her pain had not been much improved by medications and interventional procedures. At admission to a psychiatric ward for ECT, she com-plained of over 8 points of pain on visual analogue scale and the constrained movement around the painful part. Eight ECTs-three times a week-were performed for three weeks in hospital and then the ECT once a week was performed after her leaving the hospital. During the ECTs, pain had been reduced and the range of movement in the constrained parts had increased. Further systematic re-search is needed to confirm the effect of electroconvulsive therapy against CRPS.

Keywords

References

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