Brain Stimul
-
Brain imaging studies performed over the past 20 years have generated new knowledge about the specific brain regions involved in the brain diseases that have been classically labeled as psychiatric. These include the mood and anxiety disorders, and the schizophrenias. As a natural next step, clinical researchers have investigated whether the minimally invasive brain stimulation technologies (transcranial magnetic stimulation [TMS] or transcranial direct current stimulation [tDCS]) might potentially treat these disorders. ⋯ There is much less data in all other diseases, and therapeutic effects in other psychiatric conditions, if any, are still controversial. Several issues and problems extend across all psychiatric TMS studies, including the optimal method for a sham control, appropriate coil location, best device parameters (intensity, frequency, dosage, and dosing schedule) and refining what subjects should be doing during treatment (activating pathologic circuits or not). In general, TMS or tDCS as a treatment for most psychiatric disorders remains exciting but controversial, other than prefrontal TMS for depression.