Table 2.
Changes In Depressive Symptoms And Frontal Lobe Function Induced By rTMS
| n | Pre | Post | t | p | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | SD | Mean | SD | ||||
| HAMD | 12 | 20.33 | 6.87 | 13.17 | 8.98 | −5.00 | 0.00 |
| BDI | 12 | 26.33 | 10.73 | 19.50 | 11.97 | −2.44 | 0.03 |
| WCST CA | 12 | 4.58 | 2.11 | 4.33 | 2.35 | −0.67 | 0.52 |
| TE | 12 | 14.41 | 4.76 | 14.00 | 7.37 | −0.35 | 0.74 |
| PEN | 12 | 1.67 | 1.61 | 1.67 | 3.08 | 0.00 | 1.00 |
| DMS | 12 | 1.17 | 1.95 | 1.58 | 2.23 | 0.86 | 0.41 |
| WFT phoneme | 12 | 25.25 | 7.21 | 25.58 | 7.83 | 0.35 | 0.73 |
| Category | 12 | 36.25 | 7.20 | 39.42 | 6.47 | 2.40 | 0.04 |
| CST part1 | 12 | 16.47 | 5.46 | 14.54 | 1.45 | −1.40 | 0.19 |
| Part2 | 12 | 21.67 | 6.40 | 19.40 | 3.29 | −1.55 | 0.15 |
| Part3 | 12 | 29.00 | 7.65 | 25.76 | 5.28 | −2.34 | 0.04 |
| Responders | |||||||
| n | Pre | Post | t | p | |||
| Mean | SD | Mean | SD | ||||
| WCST CA | 4 | 3.00 | 2.94 | 3.00 | 2.58 | 0.00 | 1.00 |
| TE | 4 | 18.75 | 5.38 | 18.25 | 7.50 | −0.32 | 0.77 |
| PEN | 4 | 3.00 | 2.16 | 3.75 | 4.35 | 0.48 | 0.66 |
| DMS | 4 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.65 | 0.00 | 1.00 |
| WFT phoneme | 4 | 23.00 | 7.12 | 21.25 | 5.19 | −0.78 | 0.49 |
| Category | 4 | 35.00 | 4.24 | 36.50 | 5.32 | 1.19 | 0.32 |
| CST part1 | 4 | 20.20 | 8.74 | 15.01 | 1.50 | −1.37 | 0.27 |
| Part2 | 4 | 26.33 | 9.32 | 20.71 | 1.92 | −1.48 | 0.23 |
| Part3 | 4 | 33.14 | 8.11 | 27.07 | 2.32 | −1.68 | 0.19 |
| Non-responders | |||||||
| n | Pre | Post | t | p | |||
| Mean | SD | Mean | SD | ||||
| WCST CA | 8 | 5.38 | 1.06 | 5.00 | 2.07 | −0.81 | 0.44 |
| TE | 8 | 12.25 | 2.66 | 11.88 | 6.77 | −0.22 | 0.83 |
| PEN | 8 | 1.00 | 0.76 | 0.63 | 1.77 | −0.55 | 0.60 |
| DMS | 8 | 0.50 | 0.76 | 1.13 | 2.03 | 1.17 | 0.28 |
| WFT phoneme | 8 | 26.38 | 7.46 | 27.75 | 8.29 | 1.82 | 0.11 |
| Category | 8 | 36.88 | 8.51 | 40.88 | 6.81 | 2.15 | 0.07 |
| CST part1 | 8 | 14.61 | 1.46 | 14.30 | 1.46 | −0.59 | 0.57 |
| Part2 | 8 | 19.33 | 2.91 | 18.75 | 3.73 | −0.67 | 0.52 |
| Part3 | 8 | 26.93 | 7.00 | 25.10 | 6.33 | −1.95 | 0.09 |
Notes: Paired t-tests analyzing the pre- and post-treatment difference revealed significant decreases in HAM-D and BDI scores (p = 0.0004 and p = 0.03, respectively). rTMS treatment significantly improved Category scores in the word fluency test (WFT) (p = 0.04, n = 12) and part 3 of the color Stroop test (CST) scores (p = 0.04, n = 12). In rTMS-responders (n = 4) or rTMS-non-responders (n = 8), rTMS treatment did not significantly improve any frontal lobe function.
Abbreviations: HAM-D, Hamilton Depressive Rating Scale; BDI, Beck Depression Inventory; WCST, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test; CA, categories achieved; TE, total errors; PEN, the Perseverative Errors of Nelson; DMS, Difficulties of Maintaining Set; WFT, Word Fluency Test; CST, Color Stroop Test.