Magnetic Seizure Therapy in Management of Depression: A Narrative Review

This review aims to discuss historical aspects, mechanism of action, safety and efficacy, response predictors, and Magnetic Seizure Therapy (MST) protocol for treating depression. We also discuss the possibility of MST for personalized depression treatment and future directions.

MST likely has a similar mechanism to the current gold standard neuromodulation treatment of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) but differs in inducing seizures with a more controlled focus and pattern of cortical spread through the application of time-varying magnetic stimulation. The response and remission rates in depression with MST are comparable to ECT, but the cognitive adverse effects are likely to be more favorable with MST.

Depression is a common mental illness with significant burden globally, and about one-third of patients do not respond to treatment with multiple anti-depressant medications. Neuromodulation is one of the important treatment strategies for the management of depression, and among them MST is emerging as a promising treatment modality for depression. However, further evidence is needed to establish MST as a routine intervention in the clinical setting.