| Paper authors: | Jian Wang, Fidel Vila-Rodriguez, Ruiyang Ge, Sherry Gao, Elizabeth Gregory, Wei Jiang, Chunlin Yang, Gang Wang |
| Year of paper publication: | 2020 |
| Post authors: | Alice Erchov, Sarah Kesler, Fidel Vila-Rodriguez |
| Download the research article: | Wang et al. (2020) Accelerated magnetic seizure therapy (aMST) for treatment of major depressive disorder: A pilot study |
Introduction
Magnetic seizure therapy (MST) is a neuromodulatory technique that is effective at treating depression. One way you can think of MST is as a hybrid between electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Like TMS, MST uses a coil placed on the scalp to deliver magnetic stimulation. But, more like ECT, the aim of this stimulation is to induce a controlled seizure.
Due to the concern of the side effects from ECT, clinicians and researchers need to ensure treatments on a patient are spaced out. It can take 30 days to complete 12 treatments. MST treatments are able to be done closer together because they use a targeted magnetic pulse to specific brain regions. Because of this unique approach, MST is understood to be more precise than ECT, and results in fewer side effects.
Wang et al. (2020) wanted to test if MST could be “accelerated” to safely and effectively deliver 6 treatments in only 8 days.
Methods
15 patients with depression completed the MST treatment course while taking an antidepressant. MST is delivered with the supervision of medical staff and is performed under general anesthesia, meaning it is painless.
Results
- About 60% of people had responded to MST (more than 50% improvement in depressive symptoms after MST treatment)
- People experienced an average 57% reduction in depressive symptoms
- People also experienced an average 62% reduction in anxiety symptoms after MST
- People also had improved cognitive (thinking) ability after MST, especially with memory
- Immediate memory showed an average 34% improvement
- Delayed memory showed an average 18% improvement
Side Effects
- There were no serious adverse events, and nobody dropped out from the study over the course of treatment
- The side effects reported were:
- Passing, mild dizziness (8 people, 53% of group)
- Passing, mild muscle soreness (6 people, 40% of group)
- Moderate dry mouth (3 people, 20% of group)
- Passing, lisp (2 people, 13% of group)
- Passing, fever (1 person, highest 38.6 degrees C)
Future Directions
Next, researchers aim to confirm these findings in larger groups of people. It would also be useful to know how effective MST is in severe or treatment-resistant depression, which would increase our understanding and confidence in MST’s clinical use.
Conclusion
MST combined with antidepressants may offer a relatively safe, effective, and fast-acting treatment for depression. There were less cognitive side effects than similar treatment approaches (ECT). In fact, cognition (specifically, memory) may improve after MST.