Evaluation of the Efficacy of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Cognitive, Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in Patients Diagnosed With Major Depressive Disorder

This is a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, parallel group clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of two Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) protocols in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). 70 ambulatory patients with a MDD diagnosis from the Clinic at the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) will be included. All Patients will complete a total of 15 sessions of treatment in any of four groups: A group of patients will be randomly assigned to receive either 5 active TMS sessions or 2 sessions per week. Sham controls will also be randomly assigned to receive either 5 TMS sessions or 2 sessions per week. Afterwards, all participants will receive 2 sessions per month for a 3 month period. Depressive and anxiety symptoms will be evaluated at baseline, and every 5 TMS sessions during the acute treatment phase, and once at the end of a 3-month follow up. In addition, neuropsychological evaluations will be applied at baseline and at the end of the 15 session's treatment. Sessions will be applied with a MAG pro x 100 transcranial magnetic stimulator. Motor threshold will be set. Sessions will be applied over the left DLPFC at 5 Hz, 30 trains, 100%. Categorical variables will be described by percentages and frequencies. Continuous variables will be described by means and standard deviations. Treatment groups will be compared using Student's T test. Cognitive, anxiety and depressive symptom scale scores between treatment groups will be compared using repeated measures ANOVA.