The Clinical TMS Society Consensus Review and Treatment Recommendations for TMS Therapy for Major Depressive Disorder
Acknowledgement to the authors: Tarique Perera, Mark S. George, Geoffrey Grammer, Philip G. Janicak, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Theodore S. Wirecki,
Date: 2016
Clinical TMS Society Consensus Review (2016) Brain Stimulation
Prefrontal Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) therapy repeated daily over 4–6 weeks (20–30 sessions) is US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for treating Major Depressive Disorder in adults who have not responded to prior antidepressant medications. In 2011, leading TMS clinical providers and researchers created the Clinical TMS Society (cTMSs) (www.clinicaltmssociety.org, Green- wich, CT, USA), incorporated in 2013.
TMS therapy uses a computerized, electromechanical medical device to produce and deliver non-invasive, magnetic stimulation using brief duration, rapidly alternating, or pulsed, magnetic fields to induce electrical currents directed at spatially discrete regions of the cerebral cortex. This method of cortical stimulation by application of brief magnetic pulses to the head is known as transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS. When pulses of TMS are delivered repetitively, this is called repetitive TMS, or rTMS. These pulses can be delivered at either high (10–20 Hz) or low frequency (less than or equal to 1 Hz) [1]. Most clinical TMS treatments delivered for treating depression are typically given at 10 Hz to 18 Hz [2,3]. The peak magnetic field strength achieved with each pulse is approximately 1.5 Tesla, right underneath the coil, similar in strength to the magnetic field produced by a typical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device [4,5].
Updated: 6 August 2025
