Efficacy and Safety of Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Prospective Multicenter Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial

Journal: American Journal of Psychiatry (2019)

Authors: L Carmi, A Tendler, A Bystritsky, E Hollander, D.M Blumberger, J Daskalakis, H Ward, K Lapidus, W Goodman, L Casuto, D Feifel, N Barnea-Ygael, Y Roth, A Zangen, J Zohar

Background:

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic and disabling condition that often responds unsatisfactorily to pharmacological and psychological treatments. Converging evidence suggests a dysfunction of the cortical-striatal-thalamic-cortical circuit in OCD, and a previous feasibility study indicated beneficial effects of deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (Deep TMS™) targeting the medial prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex.

Objective:

To examine the therapeutic effect of Deep TMS in a multicenter double-blind sham-controlled study.

Methods:

At 11 centers, 99 OCD patients were randomly allocated to treatment with either high-frequency (20 Hz) or sham Deep TMS and received daily treatments following individualized symptom provocation, for 6 weeks. Clinical response to treatment was determined using the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS), and the primary efficacy endpoint was the change in score from baseline to post-treatment assessment. Additional measures were response rates (defined as a reduction of>30% in YBOCS score) at the post-treatment assessment and after another month of follow-up.

Results:

89% percent of the active treatment group and 96% of the sham treatment group completed the study. The reduction in YBOCS score among patients who received active Deep TMS treatment was significantly greater than among patients who received sham treatment (reductions of 6.0 points and 3.3 points, respectively), with response rates of 38.1% and 11.1%, respectively. At the 1-month follow-up, the response rates were 45.2% in the active treatment group and 17.8% in the sham treatment group. Significant differences between the groups were maintained at follow-up.

Conclusions:

High-frequency Deep TMS over the medial pre-frontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex significantly improved OCD symptoms and may be considered as a potential intervention for patients who do not respond adequately to pharmacological and psychological interventions.

Read full article