How much can patients expect to improve with six weeks of deep TMS for OCD

Introduction Deep TMS with the H7 coil over the dmPFC/ACC was recently approved for the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) by the FDA based on a twenty-nine-treatment-six-week sham-controlled study. Objective Quantify the improvement patients and clinicians can expect from their initial six-weeks of treatment. Methods The current analysis ( n  = 68) combined data from two groups of patients: – patients from the multi-center study who received active dTMS ( n  = 42) – an open label sample ( n  = 26). All patients were assessed on a weekly basis with Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS). Results The YBOCS score decreased significantly by 8.6 ± 0.8 which represents a 30.1% reduction from baseline through week 6 of treatment ( P Conclusions Six weeks of dTMS treatment for OCD resulted in both statistically and clinically significant improvement. Notably, in eight out of nine patients who were treated for more than twenty-nine treatments, their scores improved. Patients with higher baseline severity are less likely to achieve response within 6 weeks and may benefit from longer treatment. Similarly, responders may reach remission with extended treatment courses.