SynthesisThe journal of ECT2014
Biological markers in noninvasive brain stimulation trials in major depressive disorder: a systematic review.
Synthesis in The journal of ECT, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of TES and rTMS for the Treatment of Insomnia: Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression of Randomized Sham-Controlled Trials.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- The effects of non-invasive transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation on resting-state delta oscillation: a randomized, double-blinded, sham-control trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- A naturalistic, multi-site study of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy for depression.Journal of affective disorders · 2017Trial
- Assessment of non-BDNF neurotrophins and GDNF levels after depression treatment with sertraline and transcranial direct current stimulation in a factorial, randomized, sham-controlled trial (SELECT-TDCS): an exploratory analysis.Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry · 2015Trial
- Cytokines plasma levels during antidepressant treatment with sertraline and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS): results from a factorial, randomized, controlled trial.Psychopharmacology · 2014Trial
- Rostral anterior cingulate cortex is a structural correlate of repetitive TMS treatment response in depression.Brain stimulationTrial
- Gut Microbiota: A New Challenge in Mood Disorder Research.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- The use of noninvasive brain stimulation techniques in autism spectrum disorder.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2024Article
- Review
- Pre-frontal stimulation does not reliably increase reward responsiveness.Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2023Article
- A Systematic Review Assessing Patient-Related Predictors of Response to Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Major Depressive Disorder.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2023Review
- Editorial: Bench to Bedside - the translation of intracortical inhibition marker to clinical practice.Principles and practice of clinical research (2015) · 2022Article
- Electroencephalographic Patterns in taVNS: A Systematic Review.Biomedicines · 2022Review
- Article
- Mechanisms affecting brain remodeling in depression: do all roads lead to impaired fibrinolysis?Molecular psychiatry · 2022Review
- Glutamatergic System in Depression and Its Role in Neuromodulatory Techniques Optimization.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Review
- Bacterial Metabolites of Human Gut Microbiota Correlating with Depression.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
- Peripheral vascular endothelial growth factor changes after transcranial magnetic stimulation in treatment-resistant depression.Neuroreport · 2020Article
- Precision non-implantable neuromodulation therapies: a perspective for the depressed brain.Revista brasileira de psiquiatria (Sao Paulo, Brazil : 1999) · 2020Article
- Changes in Functional Connectivity Predict Outcome of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesThe therapeutic effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation in patients with major depression have shown promising results; however, there is a lack of mechanistic studies using biological markers (BMs) as an outcome. Therefore, our aim was to review noninvasive brain stimulation trials in depression using BMs.
methodsThe following databases were used for our systematic review: MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane, and SCIELO. We examined articles published before November 2012 that used TMS and transcranial direct current stimulation as an intervention for depression and had BM as an outcome measure. The search was limited to human studies written in English.
resultsOf 1234 potential articles, 52 articles were included. Only studies using TMS were found. Biological markers included immune and endocrine serum markers, neuroimaging techniques, and electrophysiological outcomes. In 12 articles (21.4%), end point BM measurements were not significantly associated with clinical outcomes. All studies reached significant results in the main clinical rating scales. Biological marker outcomes were used as predictors of response, to understand mechanisms of TMS, and as a surrogate of safety.
conclusionsFunctional magnetic resonance imaging, single-photon emission computed tomography, positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, cortical excitability, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor consistently showed positive results. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor was the best predictor of patients' likeliness to respond. These initial results are promising; however, all studies investigating BMs are small, used heterogeneous samples, and did not take into account confounders such as age, sex, or family history. Based on our findings, we recommend further studies to validate BMs in noninvasive brain stimulation trials in MDD.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.