Objective To analyze the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with antidepressants on the early efficacy and cognitive function of patients with the first-episode depression.Methods Eighty-six patients with the first-episode depression admitted to a hospital in Xinxiang from December 2017 to December 2019 were selected for the study and divided into a control group and an observation group using a random number table

with 43 cases in each. Patients in the control group were treated with paroxetine

and patients in the observation group were treated with repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation in addition

both for 4 weeks. The efficacy

cognitive function and the occurrence of adverse effects of the two groups were compared before and after treatment

and the Hamilton depression rating scale（HAMD-17） scores at 2 and 4 weeks of treatment were compared. Results The total effective rate of treatment was 74.42% in the control group and 93.02% in the observation group

and the early efficacy of the observation group was significantly higher than that of the control group

with statistically significant differences（P<0.05）. Before treatment

there was no statistically significant difference between the HAMD-17 scores of patients in the 2 groups（P>0.05）. At 2 and 4 weeks of treatment

the HAMD-17 scores of patients in the 2 groups were lower than those before treatment

and those of patients in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group

with statistically significant differences（P<0.05）. Before treatment

the differences were not statistically significant（P>0.05） when comparing memory function（memory quotient

total WMS-RC score）

attention function（net NCT score

error rate）

and executive function（number of correct responses

number of persistent errors

number of random errors

and number of classification completion） between the 2 groups. After treatment

the number of classification completion in the executive function of patients in the observation group increased compared with that before treatment and was significantly higher than that in the control group

and the differences were all statistically significant（P<0.05）. There were 15 cases of adverse reactions in patients in the control group

and the incidence of adverse reactions was 34.86%. There were 10 cases of adverse reactions in the observation group

and the incidence of adverse reactions was 23.26%. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups（P>0.05）. Conclusion The combination of TMS and antidepressants is effective and safe in treating patients with first-episode depression and is worthy of clinical promotion and use.