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Serial repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) decreases BDNF serum levels in healthy male volunteers

  • Psychiatry and Preclinical Psychiatric Studies - Original Article
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Abstract

Although repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is established in the treatment of depression, there is little knowledge about the underlying molecular mechanisms. In the last decade, the neurotrophic hypothesis of depression entailed a plethora of studies on the role of neurogenesis-associated factors in affective disorders and rTMS treatment. In the present study, we hypothesised a sham-controlled increase of peripheral brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels following serial rTMS stimulations in healthy individuals. We investigated the influence of a cycle of nine daily high-frequency (HF)-rTMS (25 Hz) stimulations over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on serum levels of BDNF in 44 young healthy male volunteers. BDNF serum concentrations were measured at baseline, on day 5 and on day 10. Overall, the statistical analyses showed that the active and sham group differed significantly regarding their responses of BDNF serum levels. Contrary to our expectations, there was a significant decrease of BDNF only during active treatment. Following the treatment period, significantly lower BDNF serum levels were quantified in the active group on day 10, when compared to the sham group. The participants’ smoking status affected this effect. Our results suggest that serial HF-rTMS stimulations over the left DLPFC decrease serum BDNF levels in healthy male volunteers. This provides further evidence for an involvement of BDNF in clinical rTMS effects.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all volunteers for their participation. Funding for this study was provided by the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany.

Conflict of interest

None of the authors had a financial or personal conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6-10, 91054, Erlangen, Germany

    Gerd Schaller, Wolfgang Sperling, Tanja Richter-Schmidinger, Christiane Mühle, Johannes Kornhuber & Bernd Lenz

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

    Annemarie Heberlein

  3. Department of Neurology, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Christian Maihöfner

Authors
  1. Gerd Schaller
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  2. Wolfgang Sperling
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  3. Tanja Richter-Schmidinger
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  4. Christiane Mühle
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  5. Annemarie Heberlein
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  6. Christian Maihöfner
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  7. Johannes Kornhuber
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  8. Bernd Lenz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gerd Schaller.

Additional information

J. Kornhuber and B. Lenz contributed equally.

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Schaller, G., Sperling, W., Richter-Schmidinger, T. et al. Serial repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) decreases BDNF serum levels in healthy male volunteers. J Neural Transm 121, 307–313 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-013-1102-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-013-1102-1

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