Adjunctive Low-frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation over the Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Patients with Treatment-resistant Obsessive-compulsive Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Twenty-seven patients with treatment resistant OCD were randomly assigned to 3 week either active (n=14) or sham (n=13) rTMS. The active rTMS parameters consisted of 1 Hz, 20-minute trains (1,200 pulses/day) at 100% of the resting motor threshold (MT). OCD symptoms, mood, and anxiety were assessed at baseline and every week throughout the treatment period.
RESULTS:
A repeated-measuresanalysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to evaluate changes on the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS). Our results revealed a significant reduction in YBOCS scores in the active group compared with the sham group after 3 weeks. Similarly, a repeated-measuresANOVA revealed significant effect of time and time×group interaction on scores on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Clinical Global Impression-Severity scale. There were no reports of any serious adverse effects following the active and sham rTMS treatments.
CONCLUSION:
LF rTMS over the right DLPFC appeared to be superior to sham rTMS for relieving OCD symptoms and depression in patients with treatment-resistant OCD. Further trials with larger sample sizes should be conducted to confirm the present findings.