Brain temporal complexity in explaining the therapeutic and cognitive effects of seizure therapy.

Over 350 million people worldwide suffer from depression, a third of whom are medication-resistant. Seizure therapy remains the most effective treatment in depression, even when many treatments fail. The utility of seizure therapy is limited due to its cognitive side effects and stigma.

The Relationship Between Cortical Inhibition and Electroconvulsive Therapy in the Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder.

Dysfunctional cortical inhibition (CI) is postulated as a key neurophysiological mechanism in major depressive disorder. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the treatment of choice for resistant depression and ECT has been associated with enhanced CI. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between CI and ECT response in resistant depression.

The role of transcranial magnetic stimulation in treatment-resistant depression: a review.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a prevalent mental illness associated with significant impairment in quality of life and treatment resistance in as many as 50% of patients. Few alternatives to psychopharmacological and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) exist. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is one such alternative with demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of both MDD and treatment- resistant depression (TRD).

Inhibition of the cortex using transcranial magnetic stimulation in psychiatric populations: current and future directions.

Several lines of evidence suggest that deficits in γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) inhibitory neurotransmission are implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Cortical inhibition refers to a neurophysiological process, whereby GABA inhibitory interneurons selectively attenuate pyramidal neurons. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) represents a noninvasive technique to measure cortical inhibition, excitability and plasticity in the cortex.

A randomized double-blind sham-controlled comparison of unilateral and bilateral repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment-resistant major depression.

Objectives: High frequency left-sided (HFL) and low frequency right-sided (LFR) unilateral repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) are efficacious in treatment-resistant major depression (TRD). Similar benefit has been suggested for sequential bilateral rTMS (LFR then HFL). There are few published reports on the efficacy of sequential bilateral rTMS compared to HFL and sham rTMS.

Evidence for GABAergic inhibitory deficits in major depressive disorder.

Converging evidence suggests that deficits in gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) functioning are implicated in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). This is highlighted by research investigating cortical inhibition (CI), a process whereby GABAergic interneurons selectively attenuate pyramidal neurons. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) paradigms evaluate this marker of neuronal inhibitory activity in the cortex.

Reliability of long-interval cortical inhibition in healthy human subjects: a TMS-EEG study.

Cortical inhibition (CI) is measured by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) combined with electromyography (EMG) through long-interval CI (LICI) and cortical silent period (CSP) paradigms. Recently, we illustrated that LICI can be measured from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) through combined TMS with electroencephalography (EEG). We further demonstrated that LICI had different effects on cortical oscillations in the DLPFC compared with motor cortex.

Evidence for gamma inhibition deficits in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of patients with schizophrenia.

Previous studies have shown that patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have deficits in cortical inhibition. Through the combination of interleaved transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography, we have recently reported on methods in which cortical inhibition can be measured from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a cortical region that is more closely associated with the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Furthermore, it is possible to index cortical inhibition of specific oscillatory frequencies including the gamma band (30-50 Hz) whose modulation has been related to higher order cortical processing.

Evidence of cortical inhibitory deficits in major depressive disorder.

Background: Several lines of evidence suggest that major depressive disorder is associated with deficits in gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) inhibitory neurotransmission. Transcranial magnetic stimulation represents a noninvasive technique to measure cortical inhibition. In this study, we endeavored to measure cortical inhibition in medicated patients with treatment resistant major depressive disorder (TRD), unmedicated patients with major depressive disorder, and medicated euthymic patients with a history of major depressive disorder and compare them with healthy subjects.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for major depressive disorder: a review.

Several studies demonstrated that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an efficacious treatment for treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (TRD). Recent metaanalyses and more recent large multicentre studies provided evidence suggesting that rTMS is indeed a promising treatment; however, its efficacy has often been shown to be modest, compared with sham stimulation. We review these lines of evidence and discuss several reasons that may explain the modest therapeutic efficacy in most of these studies, including: most involved left-sided treatment alone to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) only, which may be less optimal than applying bilateral stimulation; suboptimal methods were used to target the DLPFC (that is, the 5-cm anterior method), limiting the treatment potential of inherently a targeted form of treatment; some treatment durations were short (that is, 2 to 4 weeks); and stimulation intensity might have been insufficient by not considering coil-to-cortex distance, which has been linked to rTMS-induced antidepressant response.

Evaluating the relationship between long interval cortical inhibition, working memory and gamma band activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Recent reports have demonstrated that long interval cortical inhibition (LICI) can be indexed in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in healthy controls. LICI is a neurophysiologic process indexed using transcranial magnetic stimulation and is closely associated with cortical GABA(B) receptor mediated inhibitory neurotransmission. Several previous studies have also reported that gamma band activity represents a neurophysiological process that is mediated, in part, through GABAergic inhibitory neurotransmission and may subserve several cognitive operations including working memory (WM) in the DLPFC.

Cortical inhibitory dysfunction in bipolar disorder: a study using transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Objective: Neuroanatomic evidence suggests that patients with bipolar disorder (BD) have impaired cortical inhibition (CI). However, there is little in vivo neurophysiological evidence supporting the occurrence of such impairments in this disorder. Using 3 transcranial magnetic stimulation paradigms, known as short-interval CI (SICI), cortical silent period (SP), and interhemispheric inhibition (IHI), the authors measured inhibition in the motor cortex.