SynthesisFrontiers in psychiatry2023
Adjunctive transcranial alternating current stimulation for patients with major depressive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 8 of them syntheses 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
10 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation for Major Depressive Disorder and the Role of Intensity: A Systematic Review and Exploratory Meta-Analysis.Alpha psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Maintenance of Noninvasive Brain Stimulation for Preventing Relapse in Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Alpha psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Transcranial Electrical Stimulation in Treatment of Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JAMA network open · 2025Pooled it
- The effectiveness of non-invasive brain stimulation in treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD): a systematic review and transfer analysis.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2025Pooled it
- Transcranial alternating current stimulation for neuropsychiatric disorders: a systematic review of treatment parameters and outcomes.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Transcranial alternating current stimulation for schizophrenia: a systematic review of randomized controlled studies.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Stanford neuromodulation therapy for treatment-resistant depression: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of intermittent theta burst stimulation versus high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for patients with treatment-resistant depression: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Advances in the Clinical Application of Neurostimulation in Major Depression.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Application of Transcranial Direct and Alternating Current Stimulation (tDCS and tACS) on Major Depressive Disorder.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: We performed a meta-analysis of randomized, double-blind, controlled trials (RCTs) to systematically investigate the therapeutic effects and tolerability of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) for the treatment of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Methods: Electronic search of PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang database, and the Cochrane Library up to 1 April 2022. Double-blind RCTs examining the efficacy and safety of tACS for patients with MDD were included. The primary outcome was the improvement of depressive symptoms following a course of tACS treatment. Data were analyzed using Review Manager Version 5.3 (Cochrane IMS, Oxford, UK). Study quality was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias and Jadad scale. Publication bias was assessed using a funnel plot and the Egger test. Results: We identified 883 articles, of which 4 RCTs with 5 active treatment arms covering 224 participants with MDD on active tACS ( Conclusion: tACS appeared to be modestly effective and safe for improving depressive symptoms in patients with MDD, although further studies are warranted.
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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.