Long term effects of rTMS
Although 900 publications on rTMS, including 89 reviews, can be found in Pubmed, at the time of our clinical trial long term effects of rTMS had not yet been published. But in 2002, Dannon et al published a preliminary report of their clinical trial on severely depressed patients(Dannon et al, 2002). Patients were followed on a monthly basis and outcomes were determined with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression-17 items (HRSD) and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scales. Medications were routinely prescribed. The 6-month relapse rate of the 21 patients from the rTMS group was 4. Differences on the scores in HDRS were 7.9 ± 7.1 and on the GAF 77.8 ± 17.1 at the 6-month follow up.
