The following is a summary of “Efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) adjunctive therapy for major depressive disorder (MDD) after two antidepressant treatment failures: meta-analysis of randomized sham-controlled trials,” published in the July 2023 issue of Psychiatry by Vida et al.
Researchers carried out a retrospective study to showcase the effectiveness of one-sided High-Frequency Left-sided (HFL) recurring Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) in treating patients diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).
They compared rTMS and Pharmacotherapy in Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD). In March 2022, a systematic literature review (SLR) of English articles since 2000 was conducted on PubMed & Scopus. Random effects models assessed rTMS effects on response & remission rates.
The results showed the quantitative analysis of 19 double-blind sham-controlled studies (n = 854) and 9 studies (n = 551) for response. In patients with 2 treatment failures, rTMS add-on treatment had a risk ratio (RR) of 2.25 (response) and 2.78 (remission) in contrast with standard pharmacotherapy. The Cochrane’s Q test indicated no significant heterogeneity with no biased publication.
Investigators concluded RTMS is more effective in TRD response and remission outcomes than sham rTMS, potentially beneficial as an adjunctive treatment for MDD patients after 2 failures.
Source: bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-023-05033-y