Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an effective treatment for medication-refractory major depression, yet the mechanisms of action for this intervention are poorly understood. Here we investigate cerebral cortex thickness as a possible biomarker of rTMS treatment response.
Longitudinal change in cortical thickness is evaluated relative to clinical outcomes across 48 participants in 2 cohorts undergoing left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex rTMS as a treatment for depression.
Our results reveal changes in thickness in a region of the left rostral anterior cingulate cortex that correlate with clinical response, with this region becoming thicker in patients who respond favorably to rTMS and thinner in patients with a less favorable response. Moreover, the baseline cortical thickness in this region correlates with rTMS treatment response - those patients with thinner cortex before treatment tended to have the most clinical improvement.
This study is the first analysis of longitudinal cortical thickness change with rTMS as a treatment for depression with similar results across two cohorts. These results support further investigation into the use of structural MRI as a possible biomarker of rTMS treatment response.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 07 January 2019.
All research outputs
#7,460,281
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Outputs from Brain Stimulation
#752
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Outputs of similar age
#134,074
of 454,072 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Brain Stimulation
#13
of 35 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 26,855,855 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 72nd percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,943 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 11.5. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 60% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 35 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 62% of its contemporaries.
