ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2025
A study on the clinical efficacy and safety of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with transcranial direct current stimulation in adolescent depression.
Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Neurostimulation in the treatment of psychiatric disorders: Underlying mechanisms and critical analysis of circuit-based interventions.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Home-Based Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Depression: From Feasibility to Clinical Implementation.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
20 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: The prevalence of adolescent depression has been steadily rising, while the effectiveness of existing treatments remains limited, highlighting the urgent need for novel therapeutic strategies. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of combining repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in treating adolescent depression. Methods: This was a prospective, randomized, parallel-group controlled trial. A total of 260 hospitalized adolescents diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) were enrolled and randomly assigned to one of four groups: G1 (medication only), G2 (medication + tDCS), G3 (medication + rTMS), and G4 (medication + combined tDCS and rTMS). Clinical assessments were conducted at baseline and after 4 weeks by trained evaluators blinded to group allocation. The primary efficacy outcome was the reduction rate in HAMD-17 scores. Secondary outcomes included changes in HAMA and PSQI scores. Results: Both the G3 and G4 groups showed significant improvements in depressive symptoms compared to G1 ( Conclusion: The combination of rTMS and tDCS demonstrates superior efficacy over pharmacotherapy alone in reducing depressive symptoms in adolescents, with a favorable safety profile.
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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.