AUTHOR=Baeken Chris TITLE=Accelerated rTMS: A Potential Treatment to Alleviate Refractory Depression JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2018 YEAR=2018 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02017 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02017 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=Three decades of clinical research on repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) has yielded one clear treatment indication in psychiatry: major depression. Although clinical response equals standard treatment algorithms, the effect sizes on the beneficial outcome remain rather modest. Over the last couple of years, to improve efficacy in resistant depression, two new avenues have been developed: personalization and intensifying rTMS treatment. For the latter, we retrospectively compared accelerated high-frequency rTMS versus accelerated intermittent theta burst stimulation (aiTBS) in the refractory depressed state. Although clinical efficacy was not significant different between both protocols, our observations substantiate the potential of accelerated stimulation to shorten the treatment duration from the depressed state to response. Any time gain from the depressed state to recovery is in the patients’ concern.