Background
In the absence of effective treatments for the negative symptom complex of schizophrenia,
we explored the effect of 4 consecutive weeks of repetitive transcranial magnetic
stimulation (rTMS) exposure (20 sessions) as an add-on treatment to atypical antipsychotics.
Methods
Three groups of 17 schizophrenic subjects each were exposed to 20 treatments of either
placebo, 1 Hz (100 pulses per day=2000 total) or 10 Hz (1000 pulses per day=20,000 total) rTMS at 110% motor threshold over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,
while being maintained on their atypical antipsychotic. Subjects were evaluated at
baseline, weeks 2 and 4, and at 4-week follow-up after the last treatment.
Results
The primary outcome measure (change in Scale for Assessment of Negative Symptoms score)
showed a statistically significant drop at weeks 2, 4, and 8 for the high frequency
(10 Hz) group, but not the 1 Hz or placebo groups. Secondary outcome measures of the
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and SF-36 did not demonstrate any significant change.
Conclusions
rTMS may serve as a relatively noninvasive treatment of the negative and neurocognitive
deficits associated with schizophrenia.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 12, 2008
Accepted:
January 28,
2008
Received in revised form:
January 25,
2008
Received:
November 23,
2007
Footnotes
Funding for this research project was provided by a grant from the Stanley Medical Research Institute.
Alan L. Schneider, MD, DFAPA, Terry L. Schneider, RN, BA, and Harry Stark, PhD, report no other financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2008 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
