The purpose of this study is to establish how personalization of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can change markers of brain activity and improve treatment response. To do this, all participants will receive the same active form of treatments, but some of the participants in this study will receive intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) rTMS treatment with standard forms of targeting and intensity, and others will receive iTBS rTMS treatment using personalized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electric field (E-field) modeling measures.
The purpose of this study is to establish how personalization of rTMS can change markers of brain activity and improve treatment response in major depressive disorder (MDD). All participants will receive up to 30 iTBS treatments to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), delivered daily, 5 days per week, for 6 weeks. Participants will be randomized to either a standard treatment arm, in which the iTBS targeting will be via the Beam F3 method to identify the left DLPFC location, and intensity will be determined as 120% of the resting motor threshold, or a personalized arm, in which the left DLPFC will be identified via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the optimal coil position and stimulus intensity will be derived through E-Field modeling pipelines.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
TRIPLE
Enrollment
110
rTMS involves direct stimulation of cortical neurons using externally applied, powerful, focused magnetic field pulses. iTBS is a briefer form of patterned rTMS that has been shown to be effective against MDD, despite a stimulation period of 1-3 min rather than 30-40 min.
Poul Hansen Family Centre for Depression, Toronto Western Hospital
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
RECRUITINGCentre for Addiction and Mental Health
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
RECRUITINGMarkers of cortical excitation
TMS-EEG markers of increased cortical excitation (GMFA-AUC)
Time frame: change from pre-intervention to post-intervention (average of 6 weeks)
Depression scores
Hamilton depression rating scale (HDRS-17) scores
Time frame: changes from baseline to Week 4 follow-up
Peripheral biomarkers
Circulating volumes of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) proteins
Time frame: change from Pre- and post-intervention (average of 6 weeks)
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