Benzodiazepine use and response to repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in major depressive disorder.

Abstract

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment (rTMS) is an established and increasingly widely used treatment for patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) whose use is supported by multiple positive meta-analyses (for example [1,2]). Despite several decades of research into the use of rTMS, there remain a number of important clinical questions that still need to be answered to inform optimal clinical practice. One of these questions concerns the concurrent use of psychotropic medications and whether these may reduce or enhance the likelihood of clinical response to rTMS. Previous analyses have indicated that concurrent use of antidepressant medication, mood stabilizers or antipsychotics does not have a meaningful negative effect on the likelihood of antidepressant response to rTMS: for example, we have previously found that concurrent antidepressant or mood stabilizer therapy was associated with a higher rate of response [3].