A Summary of Evidence for Effectiveness of Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Depression

What is it about?

The aim of this work was to provide an estimate of the effectiveness of a treatment course of deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (DTMS) in unipolar major depression. DTMS is a way to non-invasively influence the neuronal excitability of brain regions that lie close to the surface of the brain by applying magnetic fields over the scalp. The idea is to restore normal activity to frontal brain regions that are typically under-activated in depression. We employed the meta-analytic method which allows a synthesis of previously published data. The advantage of this method is the potential to estimate clinical outcome across a larger range of patients than in any single study alone.

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