TITLE
Safety and Efficacy of Adjunctive THETA Burst Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to Right Inferior Parietal Lobule in Schizophrenia Patients With First-Rank Symptoms
AUTHORS
Tikka SK; Nizamie SH; Venkatesh Babu GM; Aggarwal N; Das AK; Goyal N.
SOURCE
Journal of ECT. 33(1):43-51, 2017 Mar.
BACKGROUND
First-rank symptoms (FRS) in schizophrenia have been found to be associated with various cognitive and biological markers. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been shown to modulate such factors. We hypothesized that rTMS adjunctive to antipsychotics will be safe and effective in treatment of FRS in schizophrenia.
METHODS
Schizophrenia patients with FRS randomly received either active or sham-magnetic resonance imaging navigated continuous THETA burst stimulation (cTBS)-rTMS to right inferior parietal lobule for 2 weeks; assessments were repeated. While primary outcome variables were safety profile, FRS and overall psychopathology; secondary outcomes were gamma oscillatory activity, brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels, and self-monitoring function.
RESULTS
No significant adverse events were reported in either group. None of the outcome measures showed sufficient power on the time by group analysis.
CONCLUSIONS
This study fails to demonstrate whether or not adjunctive cTBS to right inferior parietal lobule could significantly alleviate FRS. We also fail to provide evidence for whether this protocol has any effect on brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels, self-monitoring function, and right hemispheric gamma oscillations.
