Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Treatment For Parkinson's

Parkinson's[edit | edit source]

Parkinson's is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder caused by the degradation of dopamine-producing cells in the Substantia Nigra Pars Compacta.[1] The resulting decrease in dopamine produces motor symptoms characterized by resting tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, mobilization difficulties, and balance deficits.[2] In addition to motor symptoms, Parkinson's also includes non-motor symptoms including cognitive impairment, depression, hallucinations, autonomic features, and sleep problems.[3] Parkinson's affects all races and ethnicities, and it is estimated that 6-10 million people worldwide are afflicted by the disease.[2] The incidence of Parkinson's ranges from 10–18 per 100 000 person-years, and increases rapidly with age, affecting approximately 2-3% of the population older than 65 years of age.[1] Clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's is based on the presence of typical Parkinson's motor symptoms, including bradykinesia plus rigidity and resting tremor.[1] Current medical therapy for Parkinson's only treats the symptoms of the disease, and primarily consists of medications which slow or stop the underlying neurodegenerative process.[1] However, it is reported that most patients develop complications after five years, including dyskinesia and motor fluctuations.[3] Novel treatments of Parkinson's have been emerging over the past decades, including Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) which has generated interest as a potential therapeutic intervention.[2]

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation[edit | edit source]

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was developed in 1985 by Barker and colleagues which allowed them to non-invasively stimulate areas of the human cortex of the brain.[4] Since then, this technology has developed and found a place in both clinical research and treatment of various populations such as those experiencing mood[5] or movement disorders [6]. This modality is comprised of numerous conductive wires wrapped together into a circular coil within a hard plastic housing. By passing a brief electric pulse through these coil windings, a magnetic field is generated perpendicular to the coil which passes relatively unimpeded through the scalp and skull when placed on the head. This magnetic pulse, by the principles of electromagnetism, produces secondary electric fields in the opposite direction to the field generated by the coil.[4][7][8][9] It is these secondary fields that influence any conductive material or tissue in the path of the magnetic field. In this case, the conductive tissue is the neurons within the cortex of the brain. Using the above phenomenon, TMS can be used to stimulate or excite regions of the cortex to probe the function of various brain regions and their interactions.[2][9][10]

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Types of TMS[edit | edit source]

  1. Single-pulse TMS can be used to simply stimulate a given area while recording the output and is commonly used in research where an area such as the motor cortex is stimulated and a motor response can be recorded from muscles of the body via electromyography.[7][9]
  2. Paired-pulse TMS can be used to assess the effect of a preceding stimulus on a secondary stimulus.[12] While this technique is also primarily used in research, it allows for the assessment of one brain region on another. For example, a TMS pulse delivered to the motor cortex of one hemisphere of the brain 10ms prior to a TMS pulse delivered over the opposite motor cortex results in an inhibitory effect in motor output to the arms, showing firing patterns that allow for unimanual control of the upper limbs.[13][14]
  3. Repetitive TMS (rTMS) techniques involve stringing a large number of consecutive TMS pulses together in rapid succession. This method is used both in research and clinically as it can produce changes in cortical activity that last beyond the duration of the TMS protocol.[2][10][15] With some reports demonstrating excitability changes persisting for a number of hours[16]. The rate of pulse delivery appears to dictate the effect of the rTMS protocol, whereas those that deliver pulses at rates of >5Hz (high frequency rTMS) tend to produce excitatory effects and those delivered at rates of < 1Hz (low frequency rTMS) tend to produce inhibitory effects in the brain.[8][10]. These rTMS techniques have been approved as a treatment modality for those with non-responsive major depression disorder (MDD) in Canada.[5] While the use of rTMS has not yet been approved for clinical use in the treatment of movement disorders such as stroke, spinal cord injury,, and PD, the scientific literature suggests that it may provide some benefit to both motor and cognitive symptoms in these populations.[6][17][18][19]

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Potential Benefits of RTMS for Individuals with Parkinson's[edit | edit source]

Motor Benefits[edit | edit source]

Recent studies have shown that rTMS has a positive effect on motor functioning in patients with PD. Most studies have assessed motor outcomes in Parkinson's such as the UPDRS III in addition to various motor tasks such as gait or hand function with the use of rTMS treatments.[21][22] [23][24][25][26][27][28]. The cumulative results of such investigations reveal that high frequency rTMS delivered over motor areas of the cortex (both primary and supplementary motor areas) tend to improve motor scores on the UPDRS III following frequent sessions (ranging from daily to one session per week) of treatment [21][23][25][26][28] and with some observations showing maintenance of improvements for up to a month after treatment cessation.[22][24] The benefits seen were almost always observed with regard to bradykinesia or dyskinesia scores. Changes in gait have also been shown to result from rTMS treatment such that gait speed improved after a single session of high frequency rTMS as assessed using the Timed Up and Go test.[27] Further, gait speed improvements were reported in conjunction with reductions in bradykinesia following rTMS treatments twice a week over the course of a month that persisted for at least a month following intervention.[23]Notably, one study examined frequent high frequency rTMS delivered to the primary motor cortex and tracking changes in functional MRI activity.[28] This group demonstrated that reductions in bradykinesia occurred following 12 weeks of weekly rTMS treatment and the amount of improvement was linked to increased activity within the caudate nucleus of the basal ganglia during motor task execution, suggesting that prolonged stimulation may induce plastic changes to subcortical structures of the brain.[28] Therefore, the use of high frequency rTMS appears to provide benefits to motor symptoms in Parkinson's as measured by the UPDRS III and in gait parameters.

The benefits of rTMS on motor function in Parkinson's is further supported by recent meta-analyses summarizing the controlled trials completed to date.[2][19] Specifically, gait performance (SMD = 0.70 ) and UPDRS III scores (SMD = 0.37) improved with rTMS treatment compared to sham stimulation, while improvements in hand function were not affected by rTMS.[2][19] One meta-analysis found that the mean change in UPDRS III scores with rTMS treatment was -6.42 points[2], corresponding to a clinically significant change.[29] These changes appear to depend on the location of rTMS stimulation, whereby high frequency rTMS over the primary motor cortex and low frequency rTMS over the supplementary motor area both resulted in motor improvements.[2][19] These effects of rTMS treatment showed no significant effects of medication or disease severity.[19] This suggests that rTMS may be an effective treatment for management of motor symptoms regardless of medication or disease severity. Furthermore, a recent evidence had shown that rTMS may improve freezing of gait among population with Parkinson's diseases by normalizing brain connectivity.[30]

Cognitive Benefits[edit | edit source]

A study conducted by Moisello et al. (2015) found that high frequency rTMS over the primary motor cortex enhanced retention of a visuo-motor skill (target reaching using proprioceptive cues) and memory consolidation in patients with PD.[31] Further, it has been shown that patients with Parkinson's receiving high frequency rTMS showed improved performance on the Stroop and Hooper and Wisconsin Tests, indicating that rTMS may help Parkinson's with dual-tasking and attention.[32] However, rTMS does not appear to have pronounced effects on other executive functions (e.g., visuospatial abilities, psychomotor speed) compared to sham stimulation although very limited study in this area has been conducted to date.[19] In a recent systematic review there was conflicting evidence that rTMS was effective in being used for patients with Parkinson's and depression.[33] However, one study carried out on a small cohort of Parkinson's patients reported significant benefit from rTMS, evidenced by significant reductions in scores on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression and the Montgomery‐Asberg Depression Rating Scale, but not on the Beck Depression Inventory, compared with sham treatment.[34] Therefore, rTMS may provide some cognitive and mood benefits, but the resulting changes are likely small and not clinically significant.

Additional Resources[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Kalia L, Lang A. Parkinson's. LANCET. 2015; 386:896-912.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Chou Y, Hickey PT, Sundman M, Song AW, Chen N. Effects of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Motor Symptoms in Parkinson Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Neurology. 2015; 72:432-440.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Williams-Gray CH, Worth PF. Parkinson's. Medicine. 2016;44:542-546.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Barker AT, Jalinous R, Freeston IL. NON-INVASIVE MAGNETIC STIMULATION OF HUMAN MOTOR CORTEX. The Lancet. 1985;325:1106-1107.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Downar J, Blumberger D, Daskalakis Z. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation: an emerging treatment for medication-resistant depression. CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL. 2016;188:1175-1177.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Ni Z, Chen R. Transcranial magnetic stimulation to understand pathophysiology and as potential treatment for neurodegenerative diseases. Translational neurodegeneration. 2015 Dec;4(1):22.
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  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 Siebner H, Rothwell J. Transcranial magnetic stimulation: new insights into representational cortical plasticity. Experimental Brain Research. 2003;148:1-16.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 Rossini PM, Burke D, Chen R, et al. Non-invasive electrical and magnetic stimulation of the brain, spinal cord, roots and peripheral nerves: Basic principles and procedures for routine clinical and research application. An updated report from an I.F.C.N. Committee. Clinical Neurophysiology. 2015;126:1071-1107
  11. Alyssa Hindle.Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Demonstration. Available fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=qkNbYHu_STU&feature=emb_logo
  12. Chen R. Interactions between inhibitory and excitatory circuits in the human motor cortex. Experimental Brain Research. 2004;154:1-10.
  13. Ni Z, Gunraj C, Nelson AJ, et al. Two Phases of Interhemispheric Inhibition between Motor Related Cortical Areas and the Primary Motor Cortex in Human. Cerebral Cortex. 2009;19:1654-1665.
  14. Ferbert A, Priori A, Rothwell JC, Day BL, Colebatch JG, Marsden CD. Interhemispheric inhibition of the human motor cortex. The Journal of Physiology. 1992;453:525-546
  15. Chung SW, Rogasch NC, Hoy KE, Fitzgerald PB. Measuring Brain Stimulation Induced Changes in Cortical Properties Using TMS-EEG. Brain Stimulation. 2015;8:1010-1020.
  16. Huang Y-Z, Edwards MJ, Rounis E, Bhatia KP, and Rothwell JC. Theta Burst Stimulation of the Human Motor Cortex. Neuron 45: 201-206, 2005.
  17. Le Q, Qu Y, Tao Y, Zhu S. Effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on hand function recovery and excitability of the motor cortex after stroke: a meta-analysis. American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitation. 2014 May 1;93(5):422-30.
  18. Tazoe T, Perez MA. Effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on recovery of function after spinal cord injury. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation. 2015 Apr 1;96(4):S145-55.
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 19.5 Goodwill A, Lum J, Hendy A, et al. Using non-invasive transcranial stimulation to improve motor and cognitive function in Parkinson's: a systematic review and meta-analysis. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. 2017;7.
  20. TMS Center - Southeastern Psychiatric AssociatesRepetitive Trancranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) Physiology by Magstim Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmciYGTXOBo&feature=emb_logo
  21. 21.0 21.1 Ikeguchi M, Touge T, Nishiyama Y, Takeuchi H, Kuriyama S, Ohkawa M. Effects of successive repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on motor performances and brain perfusion in idiopathic Parkinson's. Journal of the neurological sciences. 2003 May 15;209(1):41-6.
  22. 22.0 22.1 Khedr EM, Rothwell JC, Shawky OA, Ahmed MA, Hamdy A. Effect of daily repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on motor performance in Parkinson's. Movement Disorders. 2006 Dec 1;21(12):2201-5.
  23. 23.0 23.1 23.2 Lomarev MP, Kanchana S, Bara‐Jimenez W, Iyer M, Wassermann EM, Hallett M. Placebo‐controlled study of rTMS for the treatment of Parkinson's. Movement Disorders. 2006 Mar 1;21(3):325-31.
  24. 24.0 24.1 Hamada M, Ugawa Y, Tsuji S. High‐frequency rTMS over the supplementary motor area for treatment of Parkinson's. Movement Disorders. 2008 Aug 15;23(11):1524-31.
  25. 25.0 25.1 Filipović SR, Rothwell JC, van de Warrenburg BP, Bhatia K. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for levodopa‐induced dyskinesias in Parkinson's. Movement Disorders. 2009 Jan 30;24(2):246-53.
  26. 26.0 26.1 Maruo T, Hosomi K, Shimokawa T, Kishima H, Oshino S, Morris S, Kageyama Y, Yokoe M, Yoshimine T, Saitoh Y. High-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the primary foot motor area in Parkinson's. Brain Stimulation: Basic, Translational, and Clinical Research in Neuromodulation. 2013 Nov 1;6(6):884-91.
  27. 27.0 27.1 Lee SY, Kim MS, Chang WH, Cho JW, Youn JY, Kim YH. Effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on freezing of gait in patients with Parkinsonism. Restorative neurology and neuroscience. 2014 Jan 1;32(6):743-53.
  28. 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 González-García N, Armony JL, Soto J, Trejo D, Alegría MA, Drucker-Colín R. Effects of rTMS on Parkinson’s disease: a longitudinal fMRI study. Journal of neurology. 2011 Jul 1;258(7):1268-80.
  29. Shulman LM, Gruber-Baldini AL, Anderson KE, Fishman PS, Reich SG, Weiner WJ. The clinically important difference on the unified Parkinson's rating scale. Archives of neurology. 2010 Jan 1;67(1):64-70.
  30. Mi TM, Garg S, Ba F, Liu AP, Liang PP, Gao LL, Jia Q, Xu EH, Li KC, Chan P, McKeown MJ. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation improves Parkinson’s freezing of gait via normalizing brain connectivity. NPJ Parkinson's disease. 2020 Jul 17;6(1):1-9.
  31. Moisello C, Blanco D, Fontanesi C, et al. TMS Enhances Retention of a Motor Skill in Parkinson's. Brain Stimulation. 2015;8:224-230.
  32. Boggio PS, Fregni F, Bermpohl F, et al. Effect of repetitive TMS and fluoxetine on cognitive function in patients with Parkinson's and concurrent depression. Movement Disorders. 2005;20:1178-1184.
  33. Starkstein S, Brockman S. Management of Depression in Parkinson's: A Systematic Review. Movement Disorders Clinical Practice. 2017 Jul 1.
  34. Shin HW, Youn YC, Chung SJ, Sohn YH. Effect of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on major depressive disorder in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Journal of neurology. 2016 Jul 1;263(7):1442-8.