Low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment of tourette syndrome: a naturalistic study with 3 months of follow-up

Low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment of tourette syndrome: a naturalistic study with 3 months of follow-up

Blog Article

The objective of this study is to report the effects of low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in three patients GD001 with medication-refractory Tourette syndrome (TS) and over 3-month follow-up.A review of literature on the use of rTMS for the treatment of TS is also presented.Three patients with severe, medication-refractory TS and comorbid obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in two of them, received an open-label trial of rTMS at 1 Hz frequency for 4-week duration.The first two cases of TS-OCD showed, on average, around 57% improvement in Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS) scores (65% and 50%) and 45% improvement in Yale-Brown Obsessive-compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) scores; however, the third case of pure-TS showed marginal improvement of 10% only.The improvement in TS-OCD patients with rTMS treatment was maintained at the end of 3-month follow-up, with an average reduction of about 49% (58% and 40%) and 36% observed in YGTSS and Y-BOCS scores, respectively.

The present study supports the use of low-frequency rTMS to improve tics Thermometers and Hygrometers and OCD symptoms in patients with severe, medication-refractory TS-OCD.Further, the beneficial effects of rTMS treatment were maintained substantially over 3-month follow-up period.