Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4rdrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-03T08:07:20.206Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An fMRI study of the effects of low- and high-frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment in depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2014

P Fitzgerald ,
A Srithiran ,
J Benitez ,
J Kulkarni  and
G Egan
P Fitzgerald
Affiliation:
Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, The Alfred Monash University Department of Psychological Medicine
A Srithiran
Affiliation:
Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, The Alfred Monash University Department of Psychological Medicine
J Benitez
Affiliation:
Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, The Alfred Monash University Department of Psychological Medicine
J Kulkarni
Affiliation:
Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, The Alfred Monash University Department of Psychological Medicine
G Egan
Affiliation:
Howard Florey Institute, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Type
Abstracts from ‘Brainwaves’— The Australasian Society for Psychiatric Research Annual Meeting 2006, 6–8 December, Sydney, Australia
Information
Acta Neuropsychiatrica , Volume 18 , Issue 6 , December 2006 , pp. 287
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 Blackwell Munksgaard

Objective:

The study aimed to explore the effects of high-frequency, left-sided repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) (HFL-TMS) and low-frequency stimulation to the right prefrontal cortex (LFR-TMS of HFL-TMS) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and after a course of rTMS in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD).

Methods:

The study was a randomized parallel before and after trial using fMRI to study the effects of 3 weeks of daily HFL-TMS and LFR-TMS treatment. Twenty-six patients with TRD underwent rTMS treatment and were scanned with fMRI during a planning task pretreatment and after 3 weeks.

Results:

There was a significant reduction in depression severity for patients in both treatment groups [F(1, 24) = 17.5, P = 0.05). Responders to HFL-TMS showed an increase in task-related activation in prefrontal regions bilaterally. In contrast, responders to LFR-TMS showed a decrease in bilateral prefrontal activity. There were also differences in pretreatment scans between responders and nonresponders.

Conclusions:

Changes in task-related brain activation produced by HFL-TMS and LFR-TMS occur bilaterally in frontal brain regions but are opposite in direction, with high-frequency stimulation increasing and low-frequency stimulation decreasing task-related activation.