Efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) adjunctive therapy for major depressive disorder (MDD) after two antidepressant treatment failures: meta-analysis of randomized sham-controlled trials

Acknowledgement to the authors: Robert Gyorgy Vida, Eszter Saghy, Richard Bella, Sandor Kovacs, Dalma Erdősi, Judit Jozwiak-Hagymasy, Antal Zemplenyi, Tamas Tenyi, Peter Osvath and Viktor Vorosa

Date: 2023

Efficacy of rTMS (2023) BMC Psychiatry

rTMS is significantly more effective than sham rTMS in TRD in response and remission outcomes and may be beneficial as an adjunctive treatment in patients with MDD after two treatment failures. This finding is consistent with previous meta-analyses; however, the effect size was smaller than in the formerly published literature.

Updated: 4 August 2025