WEDNESDAY, Oct. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a noninvasive, non-drug therapy that has been shown to be successful for acute relief of depressive symptoms, appears to have durable long-term benefits as well, according to research published in the October issue of Brain Stimulation.
Philip G. Janicak, M.D., of the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and colleagues shifted 142 patients who had responded to six weeks of acute TMS therapy to three weeks of tapering and initiation of maintenance antidepressant therapy to determine if TMS has long-term benefits for the treatment of major depressive disorder.
The researchers found that, after a three-week tapering of TMS, 99 patients underwent a subsequent 24-week period, during which, relapse occurred in only 10 patients. Reintroduction of TMS treatments appeared to prevent relapse in 32 of 38 patients who experienced a worsening of symptoms.
"These initial data suggest that the therapeutic effects of TMS are durable and that TMS may be successfully used as an intermittent rescue strategy to preclude impending relapse," the authors write.
The research was supported by a grant from Neuronetics Inc.; one author is an employee of Eli Lilly. Several authors disclosed financial relationships with Neuronetics, Eli Lilly, and other pharmaceutical companies.
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