fMRI-neuronavigated rTMS for the Treatment of Major Depression Associated With TBI

rTMS is an FDA-approved treatment for major depressive disorder, but its utility has not yet been investigated for major depression associated with traumatic brain injury. This will be a prospective double-blind randomized sham-controlled crossover study. Patients in the treatment group will receive 20 sessions of high-frequency rTMS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and low-frequency rTMS over the right DLPFC. The DLPFC will be identified as target by using individual subject-level resting state network estimation (Hacker et al, 2013). Patients in the control group will receive 20 sham treatments designed to be visibly indistinguishable from active treatment, and will subsequently have the option to be crossed over to receive active treatment with the aforementioned protocol. A subgroup of patients in each group will receive more detailed diffusion imaging (diffusion tensor and diffusion kurtosis imaging) and resting state fMRI scans before and after the treatment in order to assess for changes in white matter integrity and functional connectivity associated with the treatment.