Accelerated intermittent theta burst stimulation for major depressive disorder or bipolar depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis

We aimed to systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of accelerated intermittent theta burst stimulation (aiTBS) for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar depression (BD). A random-effects model was adopted to analyze the primary and secondary outcomes using the Review Manager, Version 5.3 software. This meta-analysis (MA) identified five double-blind randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comprising 239 MDD or BD patients with a major depressive episode. Active aiTBS overperformed sham stimulation in the study-defined response. This MA found preliminary evidence that active aiTBS resulted in a greater response in treating major depressive episodes in MDD or BD patients than sham stimulation. •Several clinical trials have examined the efficacy and safety of accelerated intermittent TBS (aiTBS) for treating major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar depression (BD) with inconsistent findings.•To date, no systematic review or meta-analysis (MA) on aiTBS as a therapeutic intervention for adult patients with MDD or BD in a major depressive episode (MDE) has been published.•In this MA of five double-blind randomized controlled trials (RCTs), active aiTBS for the treatment of MDE was significantly superior to sham aiTBS regarding study-defined response at post-aiTBS, but not for study-defined remission.•This MA found that active aiTBS showed a higher response rate than sham stimulation in treating major depressive episodes.