rss-bridge 2026-02-25T10:08:45+00:00

New brain stimulation approach could treat depression in just 5 days

A weeklong, high-intensity version of TMS may work nearly as well as the standard six-week treatment for depression. In a UCLA study, patients who received five sessions a day for five days experienced meaningful symptom relief comparable to those on the traditional schedule. Some who didn’t improve immediately showed strong gains weeks later. The findings hint at a faster, more accessible path to recovery.

Science News

from research organizations

New brain stimulation approach could treat depression in just 5 days

A five-day burst of brain stimulation could offer depression relief that once took six weeks.

Date:
February 25, 2026
Source:
University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
Summary:
A weeklong, high-intensity version of TMS may work nearly as well as the standard six-week treatment for depression. In a UCLA study, patients who received five sessions a day for five days experienced meaningful symptom relief comparable to those on the traditional schedule. Some who didn’t improve immediately showed strong gains weeks later. The findings hint at a faster, more accessible path to recovery.
Share:

FULL STORY

[Brain Stimulation Treats Depression in 5 Days]

Researchers found that compressing six weeks of TMS into just five days may still deliver powerful relief for people with treatment-resistant depression. Credit:

For many people living with depression, standard antidepressant medications do not bring enough relief. In those cases, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has become an important alternative. This noninvasive therapy uses magnetic pulses to activate targeted areas of the brain linked to mood.

Traditionally, TMS requires patients to visit a clinic every weekday for six to eight weeks. That schedule can be difficult for people balancing work, family, transportation, or health challenges.

TMS is widely used for treatment-resistant depression and has been shown in large studies to significantly reduce symptoms in 60-70% percent of patients with 25-35% achieving remission. Most insurance plans cover the treatment, making it accessible for many who qualify.

Accelerated 5x5 TMS Treatment

Researchers at UCLA Health recently tested whether TMS could be delivered on a much shorter timeline. Their approach involved five sessions per day for five days, known as five-by-five, or "5x5." The goal was to see whether compressing the schedule would still provide meaningful symptom relief.

The findings, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, included 175 patients with treatment-resistant depression. Of those, 135 received the standard protocol of one session per day, five days a week, for six weeks. Another 40 patients underwent the accelerated format of five sessions daily for five consecutive days. Both groups experienced significant reductions in depression symptoms, and there was no statistically significant difference in overall outcomes between the two treatment schedules.

"For patients with treatment-resistant depression, getting to the clinic every weekday for at least six weeks can be a real obstacle," said study lead author Michael Apostol, a Ph.D. student at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. "What this study suggests is that we may be able to offer those same patients a path to meaningful relief in less than one week by condensing 25 TMS treatments over just five days."

Delayed Improvement After Treatment

One of the most noteworthy observations involved patients in the accelerated group who did not show much progress immediately after finishing their five-day course. When researchers checked back two to four weeks later, those individuals demonstrated substantial improvement, with depression scores dropping by an average of 36%.

This suggests that evaluating accelerated TMS right at the end of the five-day period may not tell the full story. Some patients who seem not to respond at first may still experience significant benefits in the following weeks.

"All patients in this study had not benefitted from multiple trials of antidepressant medication, yet they obtained great benefit from 5x5 treatment. Some patients need to wait a few days or weeks to see benefit, and we encourage them not to give up too quickly if they don't feel better right away," said senior author Dr. Andrew Leuchter, distinguished professor and director of the TMS Service of the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. "We are finding that the benefits of 5x5 can be even greater with an extra one-to-days of treatment after two weeks."

What Comes Next for TMS Research

While the accelerated method produced promising results, the standard six-week course still showed stronger performance on certain longer-term measures. The researchers also emphasized that this was not a randomized clinical trial, meaning participants were not randomly assigned to each treatment group. Larger, carefully controlled studies will be needed to confirm the findings.

Beyond depression, UCLA scientists are studying TMS for other conditions, including obsessive-compulsive disorder and chronic pain. As research expands, TMS may play a growing role in the next generation of brain-based treatments for mental health.

Explore More

from ScienceDaily

Just 5 Weeks of Brain Training May Protect Against Dementia for 20 Years

Feb. 11, 2026 A simple brain-training program that sharpens how quickly older adults process visual information may have a surprisingly powerful long-term payoff. In a major 20-year study of adults 65 and older, ...

Patients Tried Everything for Depression Then This Implant Changed Their Lives

Jan. 20, 2026 Researchers report that vagus nerve stimulation helped many people with long-standing, treatment-resistant depression feel better—and stay better—for at least two years. Most participants had ...

A Surprising CBD Advance Calms Pain Without Side Effects

Nov. 18, 2025 Researchers developed a new nano-micelle formulation, CBD-IN, that finally gets CBD into the brain effectively. In mice, it relieved neuropathic pain quickly and didn’t cause the usual movement or ...

Short, Intense Bursts of Exercise More Effective After Stroke Than Steady, Moderate Exercise

[...]

Original source