Effect of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) in Reducing Severity of the Signs and Symptoms, Such as Cognitive, Bodily and Negativity-Worthlessness of Depression in Patients with Recurrent Major Depression Disorder

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of rTMS (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation) in reduction the signs and symptoms of depression، such as cognitive، bodily and negativity-worthlessness in recurrent major depression. It was used a quasi-experimental، pretest-posttest design with control group، a sample consisting of 32 patients who had recurrent depression on the basis of DSM-IV،SCID and BDI-II scale & Hamilton scales، were randomly assigned to two groups. The experimental group underwent 20 sessions of rTMS as the independent factor and both groups (control &experimental) had 12 sessions of psychotherapy and drugs treatment. Upon the intervention، both groups were tested with triplex tests، to determine the effect of the independent factor on the dependent factor of rTMS. Data were analyzed using Chi square، T- test، covariance and repeated measures analysis of variance. With comprise between pre &post-test، we understand the effect of rTMSin cognitive، bodily and negativity-worthlessness scalesthe difference of two groups was significant، but the decrease of cognitive scale was higher than other two scales. All the tests showed the reduction of signs and symptoms of recurrent depression in participants. The rTMS is effective in treatment of triple signs andsymptoms (cognitive، bodily and negativity-worthlessness) in patients with recurrent major depression.