Stepped Care AiTBS 2 Depression Study (Ghent)

In the active aiTBS arm, the patients will receive 100 cycli of thetaburst trains of 2s, separated by an inter-train-interval of 6 seconds, delivered on the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC; i.e. 3000 pulses per session). On each stimulation day, a given patient will receive 5 sessions with a between-session interval of 15 minutes. The treatment protocol of in total 20 aiTBS sessions will be spread over 4 days (i.e. 60.000 pulses in total). The sham coil has been specifically developed to mimic the real one.

By training working memory processing, the CCT aims at modulating similar prefrontal cortex regions as being stimulated previously by aiTBS, namely the DLPFC. thereby possibly stabilizing clinical effects of aiTBS over time. In total 20 sessions of CCT vs. control training (of approximately 25 minutes per session), will be spread over a period of 4 weeks.

All patients will be prescribed antidepressant medication (SSRI) again when starting the CCT (vs. control training).