Treatment of difficult-to-treat depression - clinical guideline for selected interventions.

Background: Difficult-to-treat-depression (DTD) is a clinical challenge. The interventions that are well-established for DTD are not suitable or effective for all the patients. Therefore, more treatment options are highly warranted.

Long-Term Risk of Developing Dementia After Electroconvulsive Therapy for Affective Disorders.

Objectives: Severe depression is associated with an increased risk of developing dementia, however, whether treatment with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) modify this risk remains unknown.

Methods: In this matched cohort study, 1089 consecutive in-patients with affective disorders, receiving ECT during the period 1982 to 2000, were matched with 3011 in-patients with affective disorders not treated with ECT (non-ECT), and 108,867 individuals randomly selected from the background population. The comparison cohorts were matched on sex, age, and the non-ECT cohort was further matched according to diagnoses and admission period and hospital.

Low-frequency rTMS inhibits the anti-depressive effect of ECT. A pilot study.

Objective: Low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the prefrontal cortex has been shown to have a statistically and clinically significant anti-depressant effect. The present pilot study was carried out to investigate if right prefrontal low-frequency rTMS as an add-on to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) accelerates the anti-depressant effect and reduces cognitive side effects.

Methods: In this randomised, controlled, double-blind study, thirty-five patients with major depression were allocated to ECT+placebo or ECT+low-frequency right prefrontal rTMS.

Effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on altered perception of One's own face.

Background: Chronic orofacial pain (COP) patients often perceive the painful face area as "swollen" without clinical signs; such self-reported illusions of the face are termed perceptual distortion (PD). The pathophysiological mechanisms underlying PD remain elusive.

Objective: To test the neuromodulatory effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on PD in healthy individuals, to gain insight into the cortical mechanisms underlying PD.

[Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in the treatment of depression].

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has appeared as a new non-invasive antidepressant method, which implies non-convulsive focal stimulation of the brain through a time-varying magnetic field. Research indicates, that rTMS of the prefrontal cortex has a significant antidepressant effect and is associated with minimal side effects. The method has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in USA and a couple of other countries for the treatment of drug-resistant depressions.

Antidepressant efficacy of high and low frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation in the FSL/FRL genetic rat model of depression.

Repetitive Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) has appeared to be a potential non-invasive antidepressant method, which implies non-convulsive focal stimulation of the brain through a time varying magnetic field. The antidepressant potential of rTMS has been supported by animal studies showing a number of interesting similarities between magnetic stimulation and electroconvulsive stimulation (ECS). Despite these positive results, this method still contains many unknown issues.