NCT01973127

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in the Treatment of Addiction

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) in Alcohol Dependent Patients: a Mechanistic Study.

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 30 (estimated)
• Sponsor: IrisZorg · Academic / Other
• Sex: Male
• Age: 23 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The investigators hypothesize that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on the right side of the head will make craving towards alcohol less severe in recently detoxified alcohol addicted patients. Although there are successful treatment option to detoxify patients form their alcohol use, many patients tend to relapse. This relapse is mainly caused by a high level of (uncontrollable) craving towards alcohol. This aspect of addiction is with the existing options hard to treat, there is a great need of new successful treatment modalities. rTMS is a FDA approved treatment method for depression. Recently some small scale studies have shown promising results on rTMS in the treatment of addiction. In this study the investigators focus on alcohol addiction since it is the addiction with the highest morbidity and mortality in the Netherlands.

Detailed description

In this study the investigators focus on three levels of interest: the biological level, the functional level and the clinical level. The investigators will measure the effect of rTMS directly on brain activity through EEG recording. The investigators investigate its effects on cognitive performance through the use of neuropsychological computer tasks. The investigators will address clinical behavior (craving and alcohol use) with questionnaires.

Conditions

• Alcohol Addiction

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Verum rTMS	rTMS on the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. TMS procedure: The resting motor threshold (RMT) will be defined in each subject as the minimal stimulation intensity evoking an MEP of ≥ 0.05 mV in 50% of the trials in the muscle of the right thumb (M. abductor pollicis brevis). TMS will be conducted in the form of 'conventional rTMS', whereby 30 trains of 10 Hz pulses with a duration of 5 seconds and an inter-train interval of 25 seconds are applied to the righ dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (50 pulses per train, 6000 pulses per session). Used equipment: Magstim Rapid 2 device.
OTHER	Sham rTMS	TMS procedure: The resting motor threshold (RMT) will be defined in each subject as the minimal stimulation intensity evoking an MEP of ≥ 0.05 mV in 50% of the trials in the muscle of the right thumb (M. abductor pollicis brevis). Like in verum TMS coil will be placed on the skull, but no magnetic field will be pulsed. Used equipment: Magstim Rapid 2 device.

Timeline

• Start date: 2014-05-01
• Primary completion: 2015-04-01
• Completion: 2016-12-01
• First posted: 2013-10-31
• Last updated: 2013-10-31

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Netherlands