A new path to treat hallucinations?

Retain – New path treat hallucinations?

This study Examine the effectiveness of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation at high frequency. Therefore, for the treatment of verbal auditory hallucinations in 65 patients with spectrum from schizophrenia.

It demonstrates a significant improvement in symptoms with a maximum response rate of 40 % after 9 weeks of treatment.

Methodology – New path treat hallucinations?

• An open, retrospective and monocentric study was conducted at the Rouvray hospital center in France, including 65 adult patients with spectrum from schizophrenia with verbal auditory hallucinations resistant to treatment between May 2020 and May 2024.
• The patients received four RTMS sessions of 13 minutes per week (2 sessions per day with an interval of one hour; 2 days per week) during the initial phase, followed by a maintenance phase adapted to the clinical response.
• The efficiency of the treatment was evaluated regularly using the hearing hallucinations evaluation scale (AHRS), the abridged psychiatric evaluation scale (BPRS) and global clinical printing (CGI) at the start of treatment, then after 3, 5, 9, 17 and 25 weeks of RTMS.

Main results

• The data of 65 patients revealed a significant improvement in AHRS, BPRS and CGI scores with an improvement over time (from start to 6 months) (p <0.001) for each measurement.
• The maximum response rate of 40 % was obtained after 9 weeks of RTMS, corresponding on average to 30.6 sessions (standard deviation, 7.8).
• The responder patients were significantly younger than non-repayers (p = 0.002), demonstrating the importance of age in the response to treatment.
• The right tolerance of the RTMS treatment new path treat hallucinations? allowed an excellent observance, with only 7 patients (10.8 %) having requested treatment of treatment or with non-observance.

To go further

Verbal auditory hallucinations are a major symptom of schizophrenia. Furthermore, affecting between 50 to 70 % of patients, including 20-40 % of cases with insufficient response to first-line antipsychotics. Resistance to treatment is defined by the persistence of symptoms after the failure of at least two appropriate pharmacological treatments. with the Clozapine considered as the most effective antipsychotic agent. However. around 40-70 % of patients resistant to treatment only obtain a low or partial response to Clozapine, requiring the development of alternative approaches such as non-invasive cerebral stimulation methods. Neuroimaging studies have shown that verbal hearing hallucinations are associated with hyperactivity in front. temporal and parietal areas involved in generation and perception of speech. A reduced connectivity of the left fronto-temporal network. a reduced volume of gray new path treat hallucinations? matter in the upper left-up temporal gyrus have been associated with greater severity of verbal auditory hallucinations. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (RTMS) uses electromagnetic pulses to induce an electric current in the underlying cortical tissue. generating modulation effects in the target region and its associated network. The authors point out that ” Thus. high frequency RTMS applied to the temporal cortex could have a neuromodulation effect comparable to that of RTMS at low frequency. »

Main limitations

Due to the retrospective design of the study. the absence of a control group, the researchers could not draw definitive conclusions on the efficiency of the RTMS or determine the optimal duration of the initial and maintenance phases. The authors point out that clinical improvement could be attributed to the placebo effect. to patient expectations or to the potential changes in concomitant treatments. In addition. the total new path treat hallucinations? number of RTMS sessions, the duration of treatment and the frequency of sessions varied according to the clinical condition of patients, which complicates the establishment of general conclusions. A more complete evaluation of negative symptoms. cognitive deficits could not be carried out in the context of current clinical practice.

Funding and interest links

The study received financial support from the Rouvray hospital center.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. The editorial team saw this content before its publication.