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Papers of the Week


Papers: 2 Sep 2023 - 8 Sep 2023

RESEARCH TYPE:
Clinical


Human Studies, Neurobiology, Neuromodulation

PAIN TYPE:
Neuropathic Pain


2023 Aug 31


Neurophysiol Clin


37659135


53


4

Prolonged continuous theta burst stimulation increases motor corticospinal excitability and intracortical inhibition in patients with neuropathic pain: An exploratory, single-blinded, randomized controlled trial.

Authors

Thakkar B, Peterson CL, Acevedo EO

Abstract

A new paradigm for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), referred to as prolonged continuous theta burst stimulation (pcTBS), has recently received attention in the literature because of its advantages over high frequency repetitive TMS (HF-rTMS). Clinical advantages include less time per intervention session and the effects appear to be more robust and reproducible than HF-rTMS to modulate cortical excitability. HF-rTMS targeted at the primary motor cortex (M1) has demonstrated analgesic effects in patients with neuropathic pain but their mechanisms of action are unclear and pcTBS has been studied in healthy subjects only. This study examined the neural mechanisms that have been proposed to play a role in explaining the effects of pcTBS targeted at the M1 and DLPFC brain regions in neuropathic pain (NP) patients with Type 2 diabetes.