ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2026
Sequential bilateral rTMS combined with fluoxetine for anhedonic depression in adolescents: clinical efficacy and peripheral inflammatory profiles.
Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: Adolescent anhedonic depression often fails to respond fully to fluoxetine monotherapy, driven by chronic peripheral inflammation and dysfunctional reward circuits. This study aimed to compare clinical efficacy and inflammatory signatures of fluoxetine alone versus sequential bilateral rTMS plus fluoxetine in adolescents with anhedonic major depression. Methods: This single-centre 4-week randomised controlled trial recruited 86 Han Chinese adolescents aged 13-18 years meeting DSM-5 major depression with prominent anhedonia, allocated 1:1 to combination (active bilateral rTMS + fluoxetine) and control (sham rTMS + fluoxetine) groups. Eighty-one participants completed treatment. The primary endpoint was the change in ASA-C score; secondary endpoints included changes in HAMD-24 total score, WCST cognitive indices, and plasma IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α levels. ANCOVA adjusted for baseline values for intergroup comparisons, with Pearson correlation analysing symptom-cytokine relationships. Adverse events were prospectively monitored. Results: Both groups presented significant within-group improvements in depressive/anhedonic symptoms, cognition and proinflammatory cytokines post-treatment. After baseline adjustment, the combination group showed superior reductions in ASA-C, HAMD-24 and all three cytokines, as well as better executive function (all Conclusion: Adjunct sequential bilateral rTMS yields synergistic benefits for adolescent anhedonic depression by ameliorating core symptoms, restoring executive function and attenuating systemic inflammation. Peripheral IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α are viable biomarkers for therapeutic monitoring, and this combined regimen is safe for adolescents with residual anhedonia after fluoxetine monotherapy.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.