Journal
SCHIZOPHRENIA BULLETIN
Volume 30, Issue 2, Pages 429-434Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.schbul.a007089
Keywords
rTMS; schizophrenia; prefrontal hypometabolism; RCT
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In a double-blind, controlled study, we examined the therapeutic effects of high-frequency left prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on schizophrenia symptoms. A total of 22 chronic hospitalized schizophrenia patients were randomly assigned to 2 weeks (10 sessions) of real or sham rTMS. rTMS was given with the following parameters: 20 trains of 5-second 10-Hz stimulation at 100 percent motor threshold, 30 seconds apart. Effects on positive and negative symptoms, self-reported symptoms, rough neuropsychological functioning, and hormones were assessed. Although there was a significant improvement in both groups in most of the symptom measures, no real differences were found between the groups. A decrease of more than 20 percent in the total PANSS score was found in 7 control subjects but only 1 subject from the real rTMS group. There was no change in hormone levels or neuropsychological functioning, measured by the MMSE, in either group. Left prefrontal rTMS (with the used parameters) seems to produce a significant nonspecific effect of the treatment procedure but no therapeutic effect in the most chronic and severely ill schizophrenia patients.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available