• Sophie Baudic, Nadine Attal, Alaa Mhalla, Daniel Ciampi de Andrade, Serge Perrot, and Didier Bouhassira.
• Inserm U-987, CHU Ambroise Paré, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, 92100 Boulogne Billancourt, France. sophie.baudic@apr.aphp.fr
• J Psychiatr Res. 2013 Jan 1;47(1):72-7.

AbstractRepetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) induces changes in neuronal activity that may affect cognition. We assessed cognitive functions, in patients with fibromyalgia participating in a sham-controlled randomized trial of rTMS for pain management. We randomly assigned 38 non depressed fibromyalgia patients (American College of Rheumatology criteria) to the active (n = 20) and sham (n = 18) rTMS treatment groups, in a double-blind manner. rTMS was applied to the left primary motor cortex (10 Hz at 80% of rest motor threshold). Neuropsychological tests were performed immediately before stimulation, to evaluate episodic memory, selective and divided attention and executive functions at baseline, week 3 (after 7 rTMS sessions) and week 11 (after 11 rTMS sessions). The actively treated and sham-treated groups were similar in terms of clinical and neuropsychological variables at baseline. No difference in overall neuropsychological performance with respect to baseline was found between these two groups, but a significant improvement over time was observed in the rTMS group, for several measurements of attention/executive function (the Symbol Digit Modalities Test and the Stroop Color Word Test). Unilateral rTMS of the motor cortex over a three-month period did not modify cognitive functions in patients with chronic pain. rTMS may have mild beneficial cognitive effects, but confirmation is required in larger groups of patients.Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

20 keywords...

hide…