Subjects
epilepsy, somatic pain, psychiatric, MDD, NRS
WEST, DISORDERS, EPILEPSY
Eighty MDD patients with moderate somatic pain were recruited from the Mental Health Center and the Neurobiological Laboratory, Sichuan University, West China Hospital. They had not received any analgesics or anti-depressants for at least 2 weeks before enrollment. Patients were randomly assigned to the DT group (n = 40) and CT group (n = 40) according to a computer-generated list. An experienced psychiatrist blinded to the group assignment performed psychiatric examinations on all patients to diagnose MDD. Inclusion criteria were: aged 18–60 years, met DSM-V criteria for MDD, 24-item HAMD score > 20, NRS score ≥ 4. Patients with other Axis I and Axis II psychiatric disorders were excluded. Exclusion criteria also included treatment with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) or rTMS in the last year, epilepsy, pregnancy and contraindications to magnetic exposure (e.g., cranial plates). All subjects were of the Han nationality, and were right-handed, with normal hearing and no severe or acute medical conditions, based on clinical evaluations and medical records.All participants provided written informed consent before the start of the study. All methods were performed according to the relevant guidelines and regulations, which were approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of West China Hospital, Sichuan University. Sertraline was given at a daily dose of 50 mg for 1 week, followed by a daily dose of 100 mg for both the DT and CT groups.