Effect of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Drug-Resistant Depressed Patients

Background and Purpose: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique that directly stimulates the brain through the scalp and can either increase or decrease neural activity in targeted brain regions.The present study aimed to investigate changes in regional cerebral blood flow before and after repetitive TMS (rTMS) treatment in patients with treatment-resistant depression.Methods: Twelve patients with treatment-resistant depression (7 male, 5 female; age range 19-52 years; mean age 29.5±8.9years) who had failed to respond to adequate antidepressant treatment for more than one year were enrolled.Each patient received 15 sessions of rTMS over three weeks (right prefrontal cortex: 1 Hz; left prefrontal cortex: 20 Hz).Tc-99m ethyl cysteinate dimer single-photon emission computed tomography scans were obtained before and after rTMS treatment.Differences between pre-and post-treatment images were analyzed using Statistical Parametric Mapping software (t=3.14, uncorrected p