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Updated: Oct 26, 2025
MRI-guided dmPFC-rTMS as a Treatment for Treatment-resistant Major Depressive Disorder
Published on: August 11, 2015
Comparative Efficacy and Acceptability of 3 Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Devices for Depression: A
Yuki Matsuda1, Ryuichi Yamazaki1, Taro Kishi2
1Department of Psychiatry, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Introduction:
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been employed worldwide for therapy-resistant depression. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a number of therapeutic devices for treating major depressive disorder; however, no studies have examined the differences in efficacy and acceptability among commercially available stimulation devices. The aim of our study was to compare the efficacy and acceptability of 3 stimulation devices (NeuroStar, MagPro, and Magstim) for depressive disorders.
Methods:
Our study included 31 randomized sham-controlled trials of high-frequency rTMS included in the network meta-analysis by Brunoni. We calculated the risk ratio and 95% confidence intervals, comparing each device with sham for the endpoints of response rate, remission rate, and all-cause discontinuation. We then analyzed the differences among the devices in effect size for those endpoints.
Results:
After determining the effect sizes for the endpoints, we found no statistically significant subgroup differences in the response rates, all-cause discontinuation, or remission rates among the devices (p = 0.12, p = 0.84, and p = 0.07, respectively).
Conclusion:
Our results suggest similar efficacy and acceptability for the 3 stimulation devices. Future studies need to perform head-to-head comparisons of the efficacy and acceptability of the stimulation devices for treating depression using the same stimulation protocols.
