There is evidence for altered levels of neuroactive steroids in major depression that normalize after successful antidepressant pharmacotherapy. Currently it is not known whether this is a general principle of clinically effective antidepressant therapy or a pharmacological effect of antidepressants. Here, we investigated whether repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) may affect plasma concentrations of neuroactive steroids in a similarway as antidepressant pharmacotherapy. Progesterone, 3 ␣ ,, 3 ␣ ,, 3  , NO . 5 Neuroactive Steroids before and after rTMS 875 action (Fleischmann et al. 1995;Zyss et al. 1997;Ben-Shachar et al. 1999;Kole et al. 1999;Keck et al. 2000). Neuroactive steroids interacting with the ␥ -aminobutyric acid type A (GABA A ) benzodiazepine receptor complex have been suggested to be involved in the pathophysiology of major depression and the action of antidepressant pharmacotherapy (George et al. 1994;Romeo et al. 1998;Uzunova et al. 1998;Rupprecht and Holsboer 1999;Rupprecht et al. 2001). Lowered levels of 3 ␣ -reduced neuroactive steroids have been found in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of depressed patients (Romeo et al. 1998;Uzunova et al. 1998), which normalized following successful treatment with fluoxetine (Romeo et al. 1998;Uzunova et al. 1998) and other antidepressant drugs (Romeo et al. 1998). On the other hand, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) has been shown to exert beneficial effects on depressive symptoms in a placebo-controlled study (Wolkowitz et al. 1999). In rodents, 3 ␣ -reduced neuroactive steroids and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) have been found to exert antidepressant-like effects in the forced swim test Urani et al. 2001). In addition, the formation of 3 ␣ -reduced neuroactive steroids is enhanced by treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) (Uzunov et al. 1996;Griffin and Mellon 1999). Currently it is not known whether the normalization of altered neuroactive steroid concentrations is a prerequisite for the alleviation of depressive symptoms or due to a specific pharmacological action of antidepressant drugs. In the present study we therefore investigated whether repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) as a novel non-pharmacological treatment in major depression affects plasma concentrations of neuroactive steroids.
METHODSThirty-seven inpatients were included in an open-label protocol (age: 51.5 Ϯ 14.8 years, 23 women, 14 men). Patients met DSM-IV criteria for a major depressive episode. All patients gave their written informed consent for this study after the procedure had been fully explained. The study was approved by the local ethical committee. Prior to the study, antidepressant medication and benzodiazepines were washed out for at least seven days and patients remained medication-free during the entire study.Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied as reported elsewhere (Padberg et al. 2002a). Patients underwent 10 sessions of rTMS (10 Hz, 15 trains of 10 s each, 30 s inter-train in...