CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 157Neurological disorders and treatmentsTreatment of Major DepressionTranscranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies

Deep brain stimulation to the medial forebrain bundle for depression- long-term outcomes and a novel data analysis strategy

Open access
Bewernick, Bettina H., Kayser, Sarah, Gippert, Sabrina M., Switala, Christina, Coenen, Volker A., Schlaepfer, Thomas E.·2017·Brain stimulation
DOI 10.1016/j.brs.2017.01.581
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Background Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the supero-lateral branch of the medial forebrain bundle (slMFB) in treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is associated with acute antidepressant effects.Objective Long-term clinical effects including changes in quality of life, side effects and cognition as well as long-term data covering four years are assessed.Methods Eight TRD patients were treated with DBS bilateral to the slMFB. Primary outcome measure was a 50% reduction in Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) (response) and remission (MADRS <10) at 12 months compared to baseline. Secondary measures were anxiety, general functioning, quality of life, safety and cognition assessed for 4 years. Data is reported as conventional endpoint-analysis and as area under the curve (AUC) timeline analysis.Results Six of eight patients (75%) were responders at 12 months, four patients reached remission. Long-term results revealed a stable effect up to four years. Antidepressant efficacy was also reflected in the global assessment of functioning. Main side effect was strabismus at higher stimulation currents. No change in cognition was identified. AUC analysis revealed a significant reduction in depression for 7/8 patients in most months.Conclusions Long-term results of slMFB-DBS suggest acute and sustained antidepressant effect; timeline analysis may be an alternative method reflecting patient's overall gain throughout the study. Being able to induce a rapid and robust antidepressant effect even in a small, sample of TRD patients without significant psychiatric comorbidity, render the slMFB an attractive target for future studies.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.brs.2017.01.581

Cites

53 of 53 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The first open-label study targeting the medial forebrain bundle in 8 treatment-resistant depression patients showed high response rates from 6 weeks (RS: 85.7%) to 1 year (RS: 75%, RM: 50%).

    “The first open-label study targeting the MFB in 8 TRD patients showed high response rates from 6 weeks (RS: 85.7%), to 1 year (RS: 75%, RM: 50%) [8,66].”

    From Deep brain stimulation for depression. (2022) · cites this paper as [66]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Bewernick, B. H., Kayser, S., Gippert, S. M., Switala, C., Coenen, V. A., & Schlaepfer, T. E.
Affiliations
  • University of Bonn (DE)
  • University Medical Center Freiburg (DE)
  • Johns Hopkins University (US)
Corresponding author
Schlaepfer, Thomas E.
ORCID
Venue
Brain stimulation
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2017-05
Volume
10
Issue
3
Pages
664-671
ISSN
  • 1876-4754 (ISSN-L)
  • 1935-861X
DOI
10.1016/j.brs.2017.01.581
OpenAlex
W2586787802
Cited by
156
References
53
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 7
FWCI
12.77
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Brain stimulation (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
Medtronic
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Neurological disorders and treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies
Keywords
deep brain stimulation, medial forebrain bundle, treatment-resistant depression, long-term outcomes, antidepressant efficacy, strabismus, cognitive effects, quality of life, anxiety, general functioning, depression remission
MeSH terms
Adult, Cognition, Female, Humans, Male, Medial Forebrain Bundle, Middle Aged, Deep Brain Stimulation, Depressive Disorder, Treatment-Resistant

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review