Multisite rTMS for Mood, Cognitive Impairment and Other Symptoms of Depression

Depression is one of the most common and disabling disorders, affecting approximately three hundred million people worldwide. Depressive mood is the main symptom, but other symptoms like cognitive impairment, anhedonia or sleep disorders contribute significantly to patients suffering, decrease quality of life and may even lead to suicide attempt. While modern pharmacotherapy can significantly improve symptoms in many patients, still one third of patients remains drug-resistant. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a non-invasive method of inducing brain plasticity. Stimulation over the left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and possibly over several other areas can improve mood. Only few studies investigated the effect of rTMS on negative psychiatric symptoms, such as anhedonia, sleeplessness or cognitive impairment. In these trials, either the DLPFC or the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) were stimulated and sometimes other areas such as the insular cortex. The aim of this study is to investigate if a stimulation over both sites (multi-site stimulation) has better therapeutic potential for depressed mood, cognitive impairment, anhedonia and sleep disorders than stimulation over DLPFC alone and placebo.