Login / Signup

Is accelerated, high-dose theta burst stimulation a panacea for treatment-resistant depression?

Kevin A Caulfield
Published in: Journal of neurophysiology (2019)
A recent study by Williams et al. (Williams NR, Sudheimer KD, Bentzley BS, Pannu J, Stimpson KH, Duvio D, Cherian K, Hawkins J, Scherrer KH, Vyssoki B, DeSouza D, Raj KS, Keller J, Schatzberg AF. Brain 141: e18, 2018) used accelerated, high-dose intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) to treat highly treatment-resistant depression patients. Remarkably, most patients remitted, but the durability of therapeutic response was weak and all patients relapsed within 2 wk posttreatment. This mini-review examines the "fast on, fast off" effects of accelerated, high-dose iTBS for depression and suggests a new treatment that would combine the strengths of multiple extant iTBS protocols.
Keyphrases