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Updated: Jul 24, 2025
MRI-guided dmPFC-rTMS as a Treatment for Treatment-resistant Major Depressive Disorder
Published on: August 11, 2015
The longer, the better ? Longer left-sided prolonged intermittent theta burst stimulation in patients with major
Cheng-Ta Li1, Chih-Ming Cheng2, Hui-Ching Lin3
1Department of Psychiatry, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Division of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming Chiao-Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute of Brain Science and Brain Research Center, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming Chiao-Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, National Central University, Jhongli, Taiwan; School of Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
Background:
Prolonged intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) is effective for major depressive disorder (MDD). However, whether longer piTBS treatment in a single session could have antidepressant efficacy remains elusive. Therefore, this double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled study aimed to investigate the antidepressant efficacy of 2 daily piTBS sessions for treating MDD patients with a history of poor responses to at least 1 adequate antidepressant trial in the current episode.
Methods:
All patients received 2 uninterrupted sessions per day for 10 weekdays (i.e., 2 weeks; a total of 20 sessions). Seventy-two patients were recruited and 1:1:1 randomly assigned to one of three groups: piTBS (piTBSx2), 10-Hz rTMS (rTMSx2), or sham treatment (shamx2, randomly assigned to piTBS or rTMS). 10-Hz rTMS group was included as an active comparison group to enhance assay sensitivity.
Results:
piTBSx2 group had significantly more responders at week 2 than shamx2 group, but it did not yield better antidepressant effects regarding the %depression changes. The changes of antidepressant scores were not different among the three groups at week 1 (-26.2% vs. -23.3% vs. -22.%) or at week 2 (-34.1% vs. -37.1% vs. -30.1%). Longer treatment duration did not result in stronger placebo effects [sham(piTBS)x2: - 31.7% vs. sham(rTMS)x2: - 26.7%].
Conclusion:
The present sham-controlled study confirmed that piTBS is an effective antidepressant option, but found no evidence to support that longer piTBS treatment duration resulted in more rapid or better antidepressant effects. A high placebo effect was observed, but longer treatment duration of brain stimulation was not linearly associated with stronger placebo effects.
