THURSDAY, Feb. 26, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Efficacy does not differ for conventional versus an accelerated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) protocol for patients undergoing treatment for major depressive disorder, according to a study scheduled for publication in the June 15 issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Michael R. Apostol, from the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues used retrospective clinical data to examine the efficacy of five rTMS stimulation sessions per day for five days (5 × 5; 40 participants) of either prolonged intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation (piTBS) or individualized, electroencephalogram-based "resonant frequency" (RF) stimulation. Outcomes were compared to the standard once-daily rTMS protocol (one rTMS session per day, five days a week, for six weeks; 135 participants).
The researchers found that both protocols ameliorated major depressive disorder symptoms, with no significant differences seen in depression symptom changes between the accelerated 5 × 5 protocol and conventional once-daily protocol at treatment completion (treatment day 5 for the 5 × 5 patients and treatment day 30 for the conventional patients). Similarly, there was no significant difference observed in improvement between the piTBS and RF 5 × 5 protocols. Using a median split of 5 × 5 patients on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 showed that the top half of patients had robust depression improvement (69 percent). While the bottom half received no significant benefit (8 percent) by day 5, they did show significant improvement (36 percent) at two- to four-week follow up.
"For patients with treatment-resistant depression, getting to the clinic every weekday for at least six weeks can be a real obstacle," Apostol said in a statement. "What this study suggests is that we may be able to offer those same patients a path to meaningful relief in less than one week by condensing 25 TMS treatments over just five days."