NCT00876720

Effectiveness Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) in Patients With Chronic Tinnitus

Effectiveness of Combined Frontal and Temporal Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) in Patients With Chronic Tinnitus

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 100 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Regensburg · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is used to modulate the auditory neural pathways caused by hearing loss and leading to the phantom auditory perception of sound in the absence of an external or internal acoustic stimulus.

Detailed description

Tinnitus is the phantom auditory perception of sound in the absence of an external or internal acoustic stimulus. It is a frequent problem which can interfere significantly with the ability to lead a normal life. Treatment is difficult. Most available therapies focus on habituation rather than treating the cause. Tinnitus is thought to be generated in the brain, as a result of functional reorganization of auditory neural pathways and tonotopic maps in the central auditory system, following damage to the peripheral auditory system. Low-frequency rTMS has been investigated for the treatment of hyperexcitability disorders such as auditory hallucinations and tinnitus. Pilot data indicate that the beneficial effect of low-frequency rTMS can be enhanced by high frequency rTMS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). In the proposed study we investigate whether high frequency rTMS of the DLPFC improves therapeutic efficacy of low-frequency rTMS on tinnitus in a controlled trial.

Conditions

• Tinnitus

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	rTMS - Intervention 1	Experimental repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (Alpine Biomed Mag Pro Option): 2000 stimuli of 20Hz rTMS over the left DLPFC (110% motor threshold) followed by 2000 stimuli of 1 Hz rTMS over the left temporal cortex DLPFC (110% motor threshold)
DEVICE	rTMS - Intervention 2	Experimental repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (Alpine Biomed Mag Pro Option): 2000 stimuli of 1 Hz rTMS over the left temporal cortex DLPFC (110% motor threshold)

Timeline

• Start date: 2009-04-01
• Primary completion: 2010-08-01
• Completion: 2010-08-01
• First posted: 2009-04-07
• Last updated: 2010-11-15

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Germany