Maximilian Kiebs

• MSc. MSc. BSc. BA
• Research Associate at University Hospital Oldenburg & University Hospital Bonn

While artificial intelligence has received considerable attention in various medical fields, its application in the field of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) remains rather limited. With the advent of digital seizure collection systems, the development of novel ECT seizure quality metrics and treatment guidance systems in particular will require cut...

Introduction Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most effective treatment for patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression but its use is often limited by the concern for cognitive side effects. This study examines the effect of ECT on autobiographical and verbal memory compared to a healthy control group and the impact of the mean sti...

Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a complex disorder. Although no standardized definition has been established to date, there are promising and well-established treatment options for the condition. Looking at the current pharmacological and neuromodulatory strategies, there is an urgent need for fast-acting and well-tolerated treatment option...

Neurostimulation is a mainstream treatment option for major depression. Neuromodulation techniques apply repetitive magnetic or electrical stimulation to some neural target but significantly differ in their invasiveness, spatial selectivity, mechanism of action, and efficacy. Despite these differences, recent analyses of transcranial magnetic stimu...

Introduction Non-invasive brain stimulation protocols are effective treatments for depressive episodes. Although the cognitive adverse effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) are well documented, evidence regarding the cognitive effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is m...

Background: Social touch is an integral part of social relationships and has been associated with reward. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by severe impairments in reward processing, but the neural effects of social touch in MDD are still elusive. In this study, we aimed to determine whether the neural processing of social touch is...

Neurostimulation is a mainstream treatment option for major depression. Neuromodulation techniques apply repetitive magnetic or electrical stimulation to some neural target but significantly differ in their invasiveness, spatial selectivity, mechanism of action, and efficacy. Despite these differences, recent analyses of transcranial magnetic stimu...

Objective: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most effective treatment for patients with severe major depressive disorder (MDD). Given the known sex differences in MDD, improved knowledge may provide more sex-specific recommendations in clinical guidelines and improve outcome. In the present study we examine sex differences in ECT outcome and...

Electric and magnetic stimulation of the human brain can be used to excite or inhibit neurons. Numerous methods have been designed over the years for this purpose with various advantages and disadvantages that are the topic of this review. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is the most direct and focal application of electric impulses to brain tissue. El...

Introduction: Affective touch is highly rewarding and an integral part of social relationships. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by severe impairments in reward processing, but the neural effects of social touch in MDD are still elusive. Objective: We aimed to determine whether the neural processing of social touch is impaired in MD...

Background While intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) has been shown to improve symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD), research has been largely limited to targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). New approaches utilize patients’ individual resting state fMRI data in order to identify superficial cortical stimulation targe...

In current perspectives on non-invasive brain stimulation techniques for mental disorders novel stimulation techniques, modalities, and increasingly also combinations with other treatment approaches play a key role. The limited efficacy and often unfavourable side effect profile of antidepressant medications—currently the most frequently used appro...

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been investigated as treatment for major depressive episodes since the early 1990s. Using data from a recent meta-analysis, we show that most patients included in randomised trials display relatively high degrees of treatment resistance. This might have unfavourably biased the clinical reputat...

Introduction: Non-surgical brain stimulation techniques may be considered as alternative or add-on treatments for patients with major depressive disorder who failed to respond to pharmacological interventions. Electroconvulsive therapy has been shown to be highly effective in reducing depressive symptoms but stakeholders remain concerned about adve...

Symposium 10 – New avenues in brain stimulation treatments for major depression: Efficacy, acceptability, and translation of novel treatments into clinical practice

„The world beyond focused attention is not in total ’darkness ’“ (Cohen & Dennett, 2011). Some aspects of the scene which is gazed upon remain at least partially aware to the observer. Therefore, although attention is focused on a primary task, excess attentional resources may be distributed across the whole scene in a gradual manner. To examine th...

The conflict monitoring process associated with the stimulus locked N2 component and error processing associated with the response locked error negativity (ne) component have been reported to correlate with several individual differences. Also there has been an ongiong debate about considerable similarities in terms of topography and their respecti...