TMS treatment has at least a 50% sustained effect at 12 months versus antidepressants which have a 23.5% sustained effect which is less when you factor in drop out.
A: Durability studies are difficult to run with a treatment like TMS, however the general consensus is that at least 50% of patients will sustain their response at 12 months. TMS treatment maintenance can assist maintaining the response (Janicak et al 2012, Senova et al 2019).
Patients who have responded to an initial course of TMS but then relapse are likely to respond to a treatment (Wilson et al 2022), which is covered under Medicare.
The comparative durability as noted in STAR*D for a typical antidepressant treatment regime after 4 rounds of antidepressant/combination treatment is 23.5%. When factoring in dropout rates this dropped to 2.7% of patients.
After up to 4 rounds of AD drug–drug combination treatments, the cumulative rateof patients who did not have a confirmed relapse improved to only 23.5%. When drop out is added, the durability of treatment effects is even paltrier. Only 2.7% of patients had a QIDS-SR determined remission after up to 4 rounds of AD drug care and neither relapsed nor dropped out (Pigott 2015)