Safety, tolderability, and effectiveness of high doses of adjunctive daily left prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment – Resistant depression in a clinical setting

In this study, 19 treatment refractory patients enrolled and were on an unchanged dose of anti-depressant or mood stabilizing medication through the course of treatment. Each patient received 5 sessions per week for a minimum of 2 weeks and, by 8 weeks, 66% had reached remission. In addition, suicidality scores decreased where 8 subjects had at least a 50% decline in suicidal thinking over the first week of treatment. This study provides pilot evidence about the safety and tolerability of high-dose rTMS as well as the potential benefits for receiving more TMS pulses to increase efficacy of treatment response (Hadley et al., 2011).

For more information:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=hadley%20tms%20safety