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. 2018 Oct 31:9:2017.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02017. eCollection 2018.

Accelerated rTMS: A Potential Treatment to Alleviate Refractory Depression

Chris Baeken  1   2   3
Affiliations

Accelerated rTMS: A Potential Treatment to Alleviate Refractory Depression

Chris Baeken. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Three decades of clinical research on repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has yielded one clear treatment indication in psychiatry for major depression disorder (MDD). Although the clinical response equals the standard treatment algorithms, the effect sizes on the beneficial outcome remain rather modest. Over the last couple of years, to improve the efficacy in resistant depression, two new avenues have been developed: personalization and intensifying rTMS treatment. For the latter, we retrospectively compared accelerated high-frequency rTMS (arTMS) with accelerated intermittent theta burst stimulation (aiTBS) in the refractory depressed state. Although the clinical efficacy was not significantly different between both protocols, our observations substantiate the potential of the accelerated stimulation to shorten the treatment duration from the depressed state to the response state. Any time gain from the depressed state to the recovered state is in the patients' interest.

Keywords: HF-rTMS; accelerated rTMS; major depressive disorder; refractory MDD; theta-burst stimulation.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Graphical representation of the HDRS scores (mean and standard deviations) at baseline (T1), after 1-week (T2), and after 2-weeks of stimulation (T3) for aHF-rTMS and aiTBS treatment separately.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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