• Peter M Kreuzer, Jonathan Downar, Dirk de Ridder, Jens Schwarzbach, Martin Schecklmann, and Berthold Langguth.
• Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg, Germany.
• Neuromodulation. 2019 Dec 1; 22 (8): 851-866.

BackgroundRepetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has become increasingly popular during the last decades mainly driven by the antidepressant effects of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex stimulation with "butterfly" coils. Only recently, alternative targets such as the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) have been brought into focus and innovative coil designs such as the angled geometry of the double cone coil (DCC) have raised hope to reach even deeper located targets.ObjectiveTo provide a systematic and comprehensive review on the application of rTMS stimulation of the dmPFC using the DCC in neuropathological and healthy samples.MethodsWe systematically searched the MEDLINE® database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/). Due to the heterogeneous naming of DCC stimulation over the dmPFC a variety of search terms was applied resulting in a numeral quantity of 340 hits.ResultsDCC stimulation over the dmPFC has been proven to be safe and feasible in various neuropsychiatric disorders and in healthy subjects. Clinical results are encouraging, but have to be considered as preliminary as data from sham-controlled clinical trials and knowledge about the neurobiological underpinnings are still scarce.ConclusionDCC stimulation over the dmPFC represents a promising approach in the fast evolving noninvasive brain stimulation techniques aiming at the functional modulation of brain areas vitally involved in affect, sensory autonomic, cognitive, and salience regulation. This may hold potential for both neuroscientific research and clinical applications in the treatment of psychiatric disorders.© 2018 International Neuromodulation Society.

9 keywords...

hide…