The Cerebral and Cognitive Changes After Intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation (iTBS) Treatment for Depression

Inclusion criteria: * Patients must meet the diagnostic criteria of at least a moderate depression * The duration of the current depressive episode must have lasted more than 2 weeks but less than 2 years * Drug therapy must have been stable for the last three weeks prior to the first treatment day with iTBS * Patients must volunteer to provide informed consent, be able to follow the treatment schedule and have a satisfactory safety screening for iTBS and MRI Exclusion criteria: * The current depressive episode is in the mild range * The current episode fulfills the criteria for a major depressive episode requiring inpatient treatment and/or electroconvulsive therapy, * The current depressive episode is clearly triggered by grief or a recent major stressful life event * Bipolar disorder * Borderline personality disorder * Psychotic symptoms * Alcohol or substance abuse/addiction in the last 6 months * Current eating disorders * Obsessive- compulsive disorders * Post-traumatic stress disorder * A life-time medical history of seizure * Neurological or neurosurgical pathologies * Cardiac or systemic disease * Metallic prosthetic material or foreign objects (pacemakers, prosthetic eye equipment, etc.) * Autism * Pregnancy * Currently using of antipsychotic medication or benzodiazepines - or any medication that interferes with motor threshold excitability