AbstractElectroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the treatment of choice for severe and treatment-resistantdepression; disorder severity and unfavorable treatment outcomes are shown to be influencedby an... Show moreAbstractElectroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the treatment of choice for severe and treatment-resistantdepression; disorder severity and unfavorable treatment outcomes are shown to be influencedby an increased genetic burden for major depression (MD). Here, we tested whether ECT assign-ment and response/nonresponse are associated with an increased genetic burden for majordepression (MD) using polygenic risk score (PRS), which summarize the contribution of disease-related common risk variants. Fifty-one psychiatric inpatients suffering from a major depressiveepisode underwent ECT. MD-PRS were calculated for these inpatients and a separatepopulation-based sample (n = 3,547 healthy; n = 426 self-reported depression) based on sum-mary statistics from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium MDD-working group (Cases:n = 59,851; Controls: n = 113,154). MD-PRS explained a significant proportion of disease statusbetween ECT patients and healthy controls (p = .022, R2 = 1.173%); patients showed higherMD-PRS. MD-PRS in population-based depression self-reporters were intermediate betweenECT patients and controls (n.s.). Significant associations between MD-PRS and ECT response(50% reduction in Hamilton depression rating scale scores) were not observed. Our findings indi-cate that ECT cohorts show an increased genetic burden for MD and are consistent with thehypothesis that treatment-resistant MD patients represent a subgroup with an increased geneticrisk for MD. Larger samples are needed to better substantiate these findings. Show less
