Use of neurostimulation in patients with treatment-resistant depression: current options and future directions.
The review maps a growing range of stimulation options for difficult-to-treat depression and highlights the move toward personalized targeting. It is not a head-to-head trial or treatment recommendation.
Noda Y.
Expert review of medical devices · Publication date: 2026-09-17
Added to site: 2026-09-17
DOI: 10.1080/17434440.2026.2717170
First online publication date verified through PubMed and Crossref.
- Modalities
- TMS, PBM, Neuromodulation
- Clinical focus
- Treatment-resistant depression, Precision targeting, Home-based care
- Population
- People with treatment-resistant depression
- Sample
- Not applicable; the abstract does not provide study counts
- Intervention / method
- Review of rTMS, theta-burst, accelerated and deep TMS, electrical stimulation, photobiomodulation, low-field magnetic stimulation, focused ultrasound, seizure therapies and implanted approaches
- Comparator
- Narrative comparison of mechanisms, efficacy, safety, implementation, cost and patient selection
Clinician summary
The author emphasizes connectivity-informed targeting, tractography, dose optimization, biomarker stratification, closed-loop systems and scalable home delivery as research directions across established and emerging modalities.
How to interpret the findings
The search was non-systematic, study counts and evidence grading are not reported in the abstract, and broad modality comparisons cannot establish comparative effectiveness.
Equipment and disclosures
No single device was evaluated. The review covers established and emerging neurostimulation categories.
Funding and competing-interest details were not available in the checked indexed abstract.
Related evidence
Compare findings from the same clinical area, including mixed results.
- Latent class modeling of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation response trajectories in treatment-resistant depression · Positive with limitations
- Effectiveness of rTMS vs. Pharmacotherapy in Late-Life Treatment-Resistant Depression: An Observational Study of Individual Participant Data From Two Randomized Clinical Trials · Positive with limitations
- Right putaminal gray matter change tracks psychomotor recovery after accelerated iTBS in melancholic treatment-resistant depression · Mixed
- Home-based low-field magnetic stimulation as an adjunctive treatment for bipolar depression: A randomized double-blind study · Mixed
- Clinical outcomes following five-day accelerated intermittent theta burst stimulation for treatment-resistant depression in routine clinical practice: A prospective naturalistic cohort study · Positive with limitations
- Excitation-Inhibition Balance and Fronto-Limbic Connectivity Distinguish TMS Treatment Outcomes in Refractory Depression · Positive with limitations
- Pilot randomized trial of intermittent theta-burst stimulation versus H-Coil transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment-resistant depression. · Positive with limitations
Summary prepared with AI assistance. Source verification does not imply an independent replication or a clinician's endorsement. Read our review method.