Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (Deep TMS™) in the treatment of major depression: An exploratory systematic review and meta-analysis
Kedzior, K. K., Gellersen, H. M., Brachetti, A. K., & Berlim, M. T. (2015). Journal of Affective Disorders, 187:73–83
This review and meta-analysis paper concerns the acute effect of BrainsWay® Deep TMS (Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) on major depressive disorder (MDD). The review included 9 open label studies enrolling mostly treatment resistant MDD patients. Analysis was conducted for the treatment’s effect, based on the accepted depression rating scale (HDRS), and the rate of responders, patients that achieved remission, and patients that did not complete the experiment (dropouts).
The study found that high-frequency stimulation over 20 sessions led to a significant alleviation of the depressed state in the majority of patients; and it was suggested that employing Deep TMS as an add-on to concurrent medication may increase the effectiveness of both treatments.
