Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Jun 19, 2025; 15(6): 105934
Published online Jun 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i6.105934
Efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy in treating auditory verbal hallucinations in a deaf patient with schizophrenia: A case report
Juan Wang, Juan Li, Yan-Ge Wei, Xin-Xin Lu, Zhao-Hui Zhang
Juan Wang, Juan Li, Yan-Ge Wei, Xin-Xin Lu, Department of Psychiatry, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453002, Henan Province, China
Zhao-Hui Zhang, Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453100, Henan Province, China
Co-corresponding authors: Juan Wang and Zhao-Hui Zhang.
Author contributions: Wang J participated in the design and coordination of this case report, was involved in data collection, and drafted the manuscript; Li J and Lu XX communicated with the patient; Wei YG conceptualized this case report and its design; Zhang ZH participated in the revision and finalization of the manuscript; Wang J and Zhang ZH contributed equally to this article, they are the co-corresponding authors of this manuscript; and all authors thoroughly reviewed and endorsed the final manuscript.
Supported by the Doctoral Startup Fund of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University.
Informed consent statement: The patient and her guardian provided written informed consent for publication of this case report.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Juan Wang, MD, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Psychiatry, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, No. 207 Qianjin Road, Muye District, Xinxiang 453002, Henan Province, China. wangjuanxy@126.com
Received: February 11, 2025
Revised: April 9, 2025
Accepted: May 7, 2025
Published online: June 19, 2025
Processing time: 107 Days and 19.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Antipsychotics alone have poor efficacy in treating patients with deafness experiencing auditory verbal hallucinations. Our patient’s psychotic symptoms were controlled with antipsychotic drugs combined with electroconvulsive therapy treatment. Antipsychotic drugs plus modified electroconvulsive therapy might therefore be safe for the treatment of deaf patients with auditory verbal hallucinations. During outpatient follow-up for 6 months, her condition have remained stable, and she has been able to take care of herself.