A double-blind randomized clinical trial of high frequency rTMS over the DLPFC on nicotine dependence, anxiety and depression.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

High frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF-rTMS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (L-DLPFC) is a widely applied treatment protocol for chronic smoking and major depressive disorder.

However, no previous study has measured the effects of rTMS on both nicotine consumption and anxiety/depression in the same volunteers despite the relationship between them.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as teenagers, young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, men only.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and double-blind study.

Because people in this Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide), so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

What Was Measured

However, no previous study has measured the effects of rTMS on both nicotine consumption and anxiety/depression in the same volunteers despite the relationship between them.

Onset/duration of smoking, number of cigarettes/day, Fagerstrom Test of Nicotine Dependence (FTND), Tobacco Craving Questionnaire-Short Form (TCQ-SF), Hamilton depression and anxiety scales (HAM-D and HAM-A) were recorded.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Anxiety Disorders, Major Depressive Disorder, Prefrontal Cortex, Smoking Cessation, Tobacco Use Disorder and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and double-blind study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

The publication is from 2021 (Scientific reports), a journal based in England.

More context: the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) compound page, all human trials.