{"id":"doi:10.1016/j.jad.2026.122406","kind":"article","title":"Novelty seeking and rapid symptom improvement across active and sham accelerated iTBS conditions: A pooled individual-patient data analysis","authors":["Chiarenza C","Cavendish BA","Mao D","Zhang Y","La Monica K","Wu GR","De Witte S","Horczak P","Geleyn C","Signorelli MS","Concerto C","Razza LB","Baeken C"],"author_count":13,"year":2026,"published":"2026-08-21","venue":"Journal of affective disorders","cited_by":0,"doi":"10.1016/j.jad.2026.122406","arxiv_id":null,"nct_id":null,"source_url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2026.122406","archive_url":"https://space-kitty.com/papers/doi:10.1016/j.jad.2026.122406","updated":null,"pmid":"42628579","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":null,"pdf_url":null,"abstract":"Introduction Major depressive disorder (MDD) is highly prevalent and often treatment-resistant. Accelerated intermittent theta burst stimulation (aiTBS) is a promising intervention for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), though outcomes vary. Personality traits have been examined in relation to rTMS outcomes, yet their role in aiTBS remains underexplored. This pooled individual-patient-data analysis of two randomized, sham-controlled trials examined associations between baseline Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) traits and one-week symptom change, and whether they differed by condition. Methods The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was targeted for 20 sessions over 4 days. Personality was assessed with the TCI, depression severity with the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS-17). TCI-symptom-change associations were examined with a robust linear mixed-effects model, adjusting for age, gender, repeated measurements, and study membership. Results 104 participants were included (M/F 45/59; mean age 40.9 ± 12.7; active/sham 50/54). The model yielded a Time × Novelty Seeking interaction (β = -1.70, p = 0.021): higher baseline Novelty Seeking was associated with faster symptom reduction, without a between-arm difference. However, the interaction did not survive Holm correction across 14 trait-interaction tests (adjusted p = 0.294) and is therefore exploratory. No other interaction reached the uncorrected threshold. Conclusions Higher baseline Novelty Seeking showed a nominal association with faster symptom reduction, without a difference between active and sham conditions. Because it did not survive multiplicity correction and was not reproduced in within-arm analyses, it is preliminary and may reflect contextual or nonspecific processes. Independent replication is required before temperament assessment can be clinically informative.","abstract_license":"CC-BY (article license as recorded by Europe PMC; abstract reproduced unmodified apart from markup removal)","license":"CC-BY","is_open_access":false,"retracted":false,"peer_reviewed":null,"categories":[],"details":null,"provenance":"europepmc","attribution":"Abstract of \"Novelty seeking and rapid symptom improvement across active and sham accelerated iTBS conditions: A pooled individual-patient data analysis\" by Chiarenza C, Cavendish BA, Mao D et al., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2026.122406, used under its Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY); markup removed, otherwise unmodified.","topics":[{"slug":"psychiatric-therapeutics","name":"Novel Psychiatric Therapeutics","domain_slug":"neuroscience"}],"cited_in_dossiers":[{"slug":"psychiatric-therapeutics","title":"Novel Psychiatric Therapeutics: State of the Field (October 2026)","url":"https://space-kitty.com/dossiers/psychiatric-therapeutics"}]}