Better One-Year Clinical Outcomes After Four Weeks of Theta Burst Stimulation for PTSD Than After Two Weeks
In a 2019 article in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, Nicholas J. Petrosino and colleagues described findings from one year of follow-up with veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who received intermittent theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (iTBS) in a four-week crossover study.
In the first two weeks of the study, half of the 50 participants (who were mostly male and had an average age of 51) received iTBS while the others were given a sham procedure. Then all the participants received iTBS on an open (non-blind) basis for two more weeks.
At one month, those who had received four total weeks of iTBS had better outcomes than those who had received only two weeks of active iTBS. These results were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2019 in an article by Noah S. Philip and colleagues.
The researchers went on to look at longer-term outcomes, namely time until relapse (a major event such as a re-hospitalization or suicide). After one year, those who received four weeks of iTBS went 9 to 11 months without relapsing (296.0 days ± 22.1), while those who received only two weeks of iTBS went 5 to 7 months before relapsing (182.0 days ± 31.9).
It seems that more iTBS may be better than less iTBS for PTSD in both the short and long term.
