Journal of International Psychiatry

Abstract: Objective: To investigate the effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation（RTMS）adjuvant therapy on neurotransmitters and cognitive function of depressive patients. Methods: A total of 94 cases of depressive patients were randomly divided into Observation Group and Control Group, with 47 cases in each group. Patients in Control Group were treated by escitalopram tablets, based on this, patients in Observation Group were also treated by RTMS adjuvant therapy. After 4 months of treatment, serum neurotransmitters, cognitive function, clinical efficacy and other indexes of the two groups were compared. Results: The effective rate of Observation Group was 87.23%, which was significantly higher than 70.21% in Control Group (P<0.05); levels of serum dopamine, 5-hydroxytryptamine and noradrenaline were significantly higher than in Control Group (P<0.01); the total number of reactions, number of correct reactions and number of completed categories were significantly higher than in Control Group; the numbers of error responses and preservative errors were significantly lower than in Control Group (P<0.01). Conclusion: RTMS adjuvant therapy can help to improve the cognitive function of depressive patients and enhance the clinical efficacy, which may be related to the regulation of the expression level of serum neurotransmitters.

Key words: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation; depression; 5-serotonin / dopamine / noradrenaline; cognitive function