Trial reportBiological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging2025
Comparing the Neurocognitive Effects of Right Unilateral Ultra-Brief Pulse Electroconvulsive Therapy and Magnetic Seizure Therapy for the Treatment of Major Depressive Episode.
Trial report in Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Confirmatory efficacy and safety trial of magnetic seizure therapy versus right unilateral ultra-brief electroconvulsive therapy in depression (CREST-MST): a randomised, double-blind, non-inferiority trial in Canada and the USA.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2026Article
- Accelerated Magnetic Seizure Therapy for Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in Adolescents With Bipolar Depression.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2026Article
- Comparative efficacy and cognitive function of magnetic seizure therapy and electroconvulsive therapy for major depressive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
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.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMagnetic seizure therapy (MST) is under investigation as a treatment for adults with major depression. Previous research has suggested that MST has antidepressant efficacy comparable to that of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), but with greater cognitive safety. The objective of the study was to compare the neurocognitive outcomes of patients receiving an acute course of MST with the outcomes of those receiving ECT for the treatment of major depressive episode.
methodsThis was a between-subjects, double-masked, randomized, multicenter clinical trial. Seventy-three participants with a severe major depressive episode were enrolled and randomly assigned to treatment with MST (n = 35) or ultra-brief pulse right unilateral ECT (n = 38). The main outcome was change in performance from baseline to the end of acute treatment on multiple neurocognitive measures.
resultsCompared with patients who received ECT, patients who received MST had superior cognitive outcomes up to 72 hours posttreatment. Specifically, following MST treatment, there was significant improvement in fine motor dexterity (p = .017) and no significant change in cognitive domains of attention, verbal fluency, executive function, or verbal learning and memory. In contrast, following treatment with ECT, patients demonstrated significantly worse performance on measures of verbal fluency (p < .001), executive function (p = .038), and verbal memory retention (p < .001). Autobiographical memory consistency decreased significantly following treatment with both ECT (p < .001) and MST, although the magnitude of change was greater for ECT.
conclusionsThe study findings confirm previous work and provide new evidence supporting the enhanced cognitive safety of MST relative to ECT. Future research on MST is warranted to optimize its application to individuals with neuropsychiatric illnesses across the life span.
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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 Socratic graph.