DEPRESSION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA: EVALUATION OF COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING CHANGES IN PATIENTS TREATED WITH TRANSCRANIAL MAGNETIC STIMULATION (TMS)
The article presents the results of a research of the effect of repeated TMS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on cognitive functions of schizophrenic patients suffering from depression. The investigation has shown that repeated TMS is at least as effective as traditional pharmacologic treatment in improving the patients’ mood: it decreases the severity of negative symptoms and also stimulates the cognitive sphere. The percent of responders in the TMS-group reached 62,5%, while in the control groupit was 52,9%. The most obvious effect of the TMS treatment concerned executive functions and the capacity to switch over one’s attention, and rapid improvements of these functions coincided with patients’ positive response to the treatment. TMS was well-tolerated, the antidepressive effect showed earlier and the reduction of negative symptoms was more prominent than in controls.