Full Press Release Details
Background:
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is an intervention for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) that modulates neural activity. Deep TMS ( dTMS ) can target not only cortical but also deeper limbic structures implicated in depression. Although TMS has demonstrated safety in adolescents, dTMS has yet to be applied to adolescent TRD.
Objective:
This pilot study evaluated the safety, tolerability, and clinical effects of dTMS in adolescents with TRD. We hypothesized dTMS would be safe, tolerable, and efficacious for adolescent TRD.
Methods:
15 adolescents with TRD completed a six-week daily dTMS protocol targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BrainsWay H1 coil, 30 sessions, 10 Hz, 3.6 s train duration, 20s inter-train interval, 55 trains; 1980 total pulses per session, 80 % to 120 % of motor threshold). Participants completed clinical, safety, and neurocognitive assessments before and after treatment. The primary outcome was depression symptom severity measured by the Children’s Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R).
Results:
14 out of 15 participants completed the dTMS treatments. One participant experienced a convulsive syncope; the other participants only experienced mild side effects (e.g., headaches). There were no serious adverse events and minimal to no change in cognitive performance. Depression symptom severity significantly improved pre- to post-treatment and decreased to a clinically significant degree after 10 treatment sessions. Six participants met criteria for treatment response.
Conclusions:
These findings provide preliminary evidence that dTMS may be tolerable and associated with clinical improvement in adolescent TRD.
Full Publication: