BrainsWay announced the publication of a pilot study in the Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology covering 12 patients who had both major depressive disorder and early-stage Alzheimer's disease. Researchers from the Delray Center for Brain Science and Florida Atlantic University gave each patient 36 Deep TMS sessions, stimulating the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with the H1 coil and then the temporal regions with the H7 coil.
Depression response, defined as at least a 50% drop in PHQ-9 scores, was 83.3% (10 of 12 patients), and remission (PHQ-9 of 4 or below) was 50%. The report also described EEG changes, including lower delta power in the right temporal lobe and higher alpha coherence between frontal and temporal sites.
The design had no control group and the sample was very small, so the results cannot separate TMS effects from placebo or natural fluctuation. BrainsWay itself calls the findings preliminary and says controlled research is needed. Deep TMS is FDA-cleared for depression, not for treating Alzheimer's disease itself.
Source
Reporting based on coverage from BrainsWay (via Stock Titan). This article is editorial summary intended for general information; it is not medical advice.
