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- Academic Editor
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Objectives: Noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) has been shown to
effectively alleviate negative and positive symptoms in patients with
schizophrenia. However, its impact on depressive symptoms and general
psychopathology symptoms (GPSs), which are crucial for functional outcomes,
remains uncertain. We aimed to compare the efficacy of various NIBS interventions
in treating depressive symptoms and GPSs. Methods: We conducted a
comprehensive search of multiple databases and performed a meta-analysis to
evaluate the efficacy of NIBS in treating depressive symptoms and GPSs in
schizophrenia. The effect sizes of NIBS for depression symptoms and GPSs were
estimated using standard mean differences (SMDs) with 95% confidence intervals
(CIs). Subgroup analyses were employed to examine potential influencing factors
on the pooled SMD of NIBS for GPSs. Results: Our search yielded 35
randomized controlled trials involving 1715 individuals diagnosed with
schizophrenia. The protocol of this systematic review was registered with INPLASY
(protocol ID: INPLASY202320082). Neither repetitive transcranial magnetic
stimulation (rTMS) nor transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
demonstrated significant improvements in depressive symptoms
compared to sham controls. NIBS exhibited a small-to-moderate effect size for
GPSs, with a pooled SMD of –0.2956 (95% CI: –0.459 to –0.132) and a
heterogeneity (I