Evaluation of positive and negative affections in depression in elderly people with the use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation by the theta-burst method: clinical, randomized, double blind test

Abstract

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a mental disorder that affects the patient's initiative causing clinically significant distress and impaired social functioning. MDD affects about 15% of the adult population and is 80% more recurrent in the elderly than in the general population. Patients with MDD have a high rate of refractoriness and recurrence, higher in the elderly group. MDD patients show an increase in negative affects and a decline in positive affects. Non-invasive neuromodulation techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) have been used to treat MDD, and a new technique within TMS, thetaburststimulation (TBS), has shown satisfactory results for treating it. The aim of this study is to verify the scores of positive and negative affects of elderly people with MDD throughout the treatment of TMS with the TBS technique.