Division
East Florida
Hospital
HCA Florida Aventura Hospital
Specialty
Psychiatry
Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
2023
Keywords
depression, Alzheimer's disease, neuromodulation therapy
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences | Nervous System Diseases | Psychiatry | Therapeutics
Abstract
Please see supplemental content for full abstract with references.
INTRODUCTION: An estimated 44 million individuals live with Alzheimer's Dementia globally, a number expected to triple by 2050.1 Depression is a commonly observed comorbidity in individuals with Alzheimer's disease. Traditional antidepressant medications often pose challenges due to their side effects and limited efficacy in this population. As a result, alternative therapeutic approaches are being explored, with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) emerging as a promising intervention for treating depression in Alzheimer's patients. TMS is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that utilizes magnetic fields to modulate neural activity in targeted brain regions without the systemic side effects associated with pharmacological interventions. We evaluated the current literature on the potential of TMS as a treatment modality for depression in Alzheimer's patients.
METHODS: A search in PubMed yielded thirteen results in English for which the full text was available. Criteria for exclusion included lack of relevance to the research question, case studies, commentaries or letters to the editor, and guideline articles. We included five studies in this review. Two independent reviewers assessed the studies.
DISCUSSION: Most of the current literature assesses the efficacy of TMS in improving cognitive function and memory while acknowledging the difficulty in discerning whether the positive outcomes seen are a sign of improved markers of AD or the commonly seen comorbid depression in this patient population. The scarcity of available literature highlights the necessity of more robust clinical studies exploring the treatment of depression in the geriatric population with comorbid Alzheimer's dementia.
Recommended Citation
Marbn, Aaron; Ragland, Shane; Adrian, Thalia; Alvarez Villalba, Clara; and Neuhut, Samuel, "The Treatment of Depression in Alzheimer's Disease Using Neuromodulation: A Literature Review" (2023). East Florida Research Day 2023. 53.
https://scholarlycommons.hcahealthcare.com/eastflorida2023/53