Transcranial pulse stimulation (TPS) improves depression in AD patients on state‐of‐the‐art treatment

INTRODUCTION: Ultrasound‐based brain stimulation is a novel, non‐invasive therapeutic approach to precisely target regions of interest. Data from a first clinical trial of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) receiving 2‐4 weeks transcranial pulse stimulation (TPS) have shown memory and cognitive improvements for up to 3 months, despite ongoing state‐of‐the‐art treatment. Importantly, depressive symptoms also improved. METHODS: We analyzed changes in Beck Depression Inventory (BDI‐II) and functional connectivity (FC) changes with functional magnetic resonance imaging in 18 AD patients. RESULTS: We found significant improvement in BDI‐II after TPS therapy. FC analysis showed a normalization of the FC between the salience network (right anterior insula) and the ventromedial network (left frontal orbital cortex). DISCUSSION: Stimulation of areas related to depression (including extended dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) appears to alleviate depressive symptoms and induces FC changes in AD patients. TPS may be a novel add‐on therapy for depression in AD and as a neuropsychiatric diagnosis.