Transcranial magnetic stimulation improves the effectiveness of psychological intervention in relieving post-stroke depression / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate any effect of supplementing psychological intervention with repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in treating depression, improving neurological functioning and improving the life quality of depressed stroke survivors.Methods:A total of 228 patients with post-stroke depression (PSD) were randomly divided into a psychological intervention group, an rTMS treatment group and a combined treatment group, each of 76. In addition to routine stroke treatment and anti-depressant drug treatment, the psychological intervention group received psychological counseling and the rTMS group was given rTMS at 10Hz for 8 weeks. The combined group received both. Before and after the intervention, depression was quantified using the 24-item Hamilton Depression Scale. The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale was used to quantify neurological functioning. And cognitive functioning was assessed with the Cognitive Function Assessment Scale. Life quality was assessed using the Stroke-specific Quality of Life Scale.Results:After the 8 weeks, significant improvement was observed in the average scores of all three groups on all of the measurements. The combined group had improved significantly more than the other two groups in terms of all of the dimensions studied. The combined group′s clinical remission rate (38.16%) and response rate (85.53%) were significantly higher than those of the other two groups.Conclusions:Repetitive transcranial stimulation can significantly improve the effectiveness of psychological counseling in treating PSD after a stroke. Using them jointly is worthy of application in the clinical practice.