https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S092099641930578X?dgcid=raven_sd_aip_email
2 Likes
The report says that:
" Highlights
•
iTBS combined with MRI–guided neuronavigation have been proposed as a more preponderant treatment of schizophrenia
•
Modulation of L-DLPFC activity may be a potential option for alleviating symptoms of schizophrenia
•
iTBS group showed a significant superiority over sham group in remission of symptoms of schizophrenia
•
The clinical post-intervention effects of 2-weeks iTBS can maintain for nearly 2 months."
Theta burst stimulation is:
" Theta Burst Stimulation (TBS) is a revolutionary form of brain stimulation that more closely mimics the natural rhythms of activity in the neurons of the brain. Theta Bursts are short bursts of stimulation at high frequencies, with the bursts themselves being applied 5 times per second. First used in 2005, TBS has been shown to produce stronger and longer-lasting changes in brain activity, while requiring much less time to administer. Clinicians believe that TBS may eventually prove to be more effective than the older forms of stimulation in treating neurological and psychiatric disorders. We are so excited about TBS stimulation that we offer “off label” TBS treatment on 2 different TBS devices-"
For those that want to know a little more… 
2 Likes
Effect size is not so big although there are some (predominantly for negative symptoms). So might be a future treatment for schz (might be not), need to be replicated.
I also wonder what are the cognitive effects, they are not covered in this study.
1 Like
This trial was one I was really looking forward to the results of, and I have to say, I’m impressed. It looks very hopeful. I got the full doc on sci hub. sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.schres.2019.12.008
The TL;DR: The results are impressive for total PANSS and negative symptoms in particular. In the active group the PANSS total went from 63 to 50.
Most of the improvement came from negative symptoms, with an amazing 64% of the group responding.
They did not find efficacy for cognitive symptoms for this therapy.
the reason may be that the promotion
of L-DLPFC on cognitive function is limited to specific cognitive domains
I’m not sure what that means exactly. Maybe another part of the brain is more responsible for some of the cognitive symptoms.
Furthermore, the results of the PANSS_N are shown that the improvement rate of patients’ negative symptoms reached 48% after post-iTBS treatment, the improvement rate of clinical negative symptoms reached 64% in 2 months (Leucht, 2014) (Fig. 1)In our study, we compared the efficacy of a 2-weeks intervention with iTBS or sham applied neuronavigation on L-DLPFC in schizophrenia patients for remission of symptoms, and it was our first time to provide the preliminary results of RCT study on clinical symptoms and cognitive function improvement in patients with chronic schizophrenia. We found iTBS had a particularly preponderant and relatively stable clinical effect in terms of improving total symptoms, especially negative symptoms. The main highlight of our study is the powerful advantage of iTBS on L-DLPFC in relieving symptoms and maintaining therapeutic efficacy to validate the clinical efficacy of long-term TBS (Ji et al., 2017). MRI-neuronavigation can accurately regulate the activity of the L-DLPFC, which may activate the neurons in the prefrontal cortex so as to relieve the symptoms(Gao et al., 2019). Although the exploratory results of our study preliminarily show the role of iTBS in improving the clinical symptoms of schizophrenia, we failed to find the improvement of long-term TBS on overall cognitive function, the reason may be that the promotion of L-DLPFC on cognitive function is limited to specific cognitive domains.
2 Likes