Efficacy of bilateral rTMS for negative symptoms of schizophrenia

What is it about?

A multicenter double-blind randomized controlled trial was performed in 32 patients with negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Patients were randomized to a 3-week course of active or sham prefrontal bilateral 10 Hz rTMS. A significant improvement of negative symptoms as measured by the SANS in the active group compared with sham up to 3 months follow-up (p = 0.03) was found.

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Why is it important?

Considering the long follow-up period of three months and the clinical characteristics of the included patients (many patients had a long duration of illness and were prescribed high dosages of (multiple) antipsychotics), this effect is of considerable relevance, as it is a proof-of-principle evidence of the potential of rTMS to improve negative symptoms. The blinding was successful and no data of the SANS or PANSS was lost at follow-up.