SynthesisAlpha psychiatry2025
Maintenance of Noninvasive Brain Stimulation for Preventing Relapse in Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Alpha psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Reconsideration of the lifetime limit of 50 rebated TMS sessions.Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists · 2026Article
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
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Depression relapse rates remain high after acute treatment; this study evaluates the efficacy of maintenance noninvasive brain stimulation in preventing relapse and identifies optimal treatment parameters. Methods: This meta-analysis was conducted following PRISMA guidelines. We conducted a systematic search of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and PsycINFO databases up to January 5, 2025. The primary outcome was relapse rate. Results: A total of nine randomized controlled trials with 837 participants were included, six studies used electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and three studies used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Our findings indicate that ECT combined with pharmacotherapy or rTMS alone demonstrated superiority over pharmacotherapy alone in reducing the relapse of depression during 6, 9, 12-month maintenance treatment periods. Interestingly, ECT alone did not show significant results. In terms of stimulation parameters, the ECT combined with pharmacotherapy group mainly received right unilateral stimulation, while the ECT alone group had bitemporal stimulation. The stimulation frequency was similar between the two groups. In contrast, the rTMS-alone group had significantly higher stimulation frequencies than the ECT groups. We did not find any eligible studies on transcranial direct current stimulation, transcranial alternating current stimulation or magnetic seizure therapy, but they also showed potential in the maintenance treatment of depression, which warrants further investigation. Conclusions: ECT combined with pharmacotherapy, or rTMS alone, is more effective than pharmacotherapy alone in preventing relapse of depression during 6 to 12 months of maintenance treatment. Future research should prioritize identifying the optimal treatment regimen and exploring the potential of combination therapies. The PROSPERO Registration: CRD42023490546, https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD42023490546.
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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.