Electroconvulsive Treatment in Dementia With Lewy Bodies: A Case Report

We report the case of a 78-year-old female patient with dementia with Lewy bodies accompanying severe psychotic and parkinsonian symptoms. The patient s symptoms did not improved with various antipsychotics, and cardiac and pulmonary side effects prevented adequate doses of the drugs from being administered. As an alternative approach, we performed electroconvulsive therapy, which can be conducted relatively safely in elderly patients with underlying medical conditions. The patient received 10 sessions of electroconvulsive therapy across a 4-week period. Remarkable improvements in psychotic and parkinsonian symptoms proven with validated scales were observed following the repeating electroconvulsive therapy sessions. This is the first case report describing the use of electroconvulsive therapy in a patient with dementia with Lewy bodies in Korea. This case report may help to establish new guidelines for the treatment of patients with dementia with Lewy bodies, which is still considered a difficult disease to treat.