The purpose of this study was to assess and compare the efficacy and safety of melatonin and memantine in the alleviation of cognitive disorders in patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) undergoing electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Patients undergoing ECT for treatment of MDD were randomly allocated to the melatonin (3 mg/d) or memantine (5 mg/d) groups. The participants received either melatonin or memantine (tablet) through the ECT therapy, which was started at beginning the first day of ECT and continued to the sixth session. The Modified Mental State Examination (MMSE) was used to evaluate cognitive function before and after the intervention. Frothy eligible patients (22 females and 18 males) were studied. There was no significant difference between two groups in terms of demographic characteristics, hemodynamic parameters and baseline MMSE and item 3 MMSE. The Memantine group scored significantly higher at the end of the ECT sessions either by MMSE or item 3MMSE than the baseline (P = 0.04 and P = 0.03, respectively). In the melatonin group, both MMSE and item 3MMSE scores were decreased significantly than the baseline (p = 0.03 and p = 0.02, respectively). No withdrawal was observed due to the drugs' adverse effects. It seems that memantine (5 mg/d) is more effective than melatonin (3 mg/d), to alleviate cognitive disorders induced by ECT.
Keywords: Cognition; ECT; MMSE; Melatonin; Memantine.
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