Methylome-wide change associated with response to electroconvulsive therapy in depressed patients

Abstract Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a quick-acting and powerful antidepressant treatment considered to be effective in treating severe and pharmacotherapy-resistant forms of depression. Recent studies have suggested that epigenetic mechanisms can mediate treatment response and investigations about the relationship between the effects of ECT and DNA methylation have so far largely taken candidate approaches. In the present study, we examined the effects of ECT on the methylome associated with response in depressed patients (n = 34), testing for differentially methylated CpG sites before the first and after the last ECT treatment. We identified one differentially methylated CpG site associated with the effect of ECT response (defined as >50% decrease in Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score, HDRS), TNKS (q