Dr. Rhee was awarded $361,030 NIH grant for his nationwide project titled, “Epidemiology and Clinical Outcomes of Electroconvulsive Therapy Use in Nursing Home Residents with Dementia.” Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) can be an effective treatment modality for severe neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) (e.g., agitation and depression) in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). However, no nationwide epidemiologic study has previously conducted whether ECT is effective in reducing key clinical outcomes (e.g., hospitalizations and all-cause mortality rates) among older adults with ADRD in nursing home settings. This study aims to examine the impact of ECT use on functional outcomes and mortality using nationally-representative data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) linked with other publicly available data sources. This 2-year NIH-funded study will be carried out in collaboration with the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital. Students interested in learning more about the study can reach out to Dr. Rhee for more information.
For more information, contact: Dr. Greg Rhee at rhee@uchc.edu