Efficacy of Adjunctive Use of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Patients with Schizophrenia with Prominent Negative Symptoms: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Aim: To explore the efficacy of adjunctive use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in patients with schizophrenia with prominent negative symptoms.Materials and methods: It was a hospital-based, prospective, randomized, double-blind, sham-(placebo) controlled, interventional, two-armed trial, including 50 patients with predominant negative symptoms of schizophrenia who were divided into two groups of true and sham rTMS after TMS adult safety screening (TASS) screening and baseline Calgary Depression Scale for schizophrenia (CDSS), schedule for deficit syndrome (SDS), and scale for the assessment of negative symptoms (SANS) recording and weekly SDS and SANS application up till 4 weeks.Results: There was greater reduction of negative symptoms in both SANS (9.04%) and SDS (9.75%) scales in true group as compared with sham group, where SANS and SDS scores were reduced by 1.32% and 0.48%, respectively. Conclusion:The study is part of an emerging area of interest in the field of noninvasive techniques of brain stimulation, and the results are strongly persuading.Clinical significance: This study suggests that the 10-Hz rTMS protocol is an efficacious, adjunctive, noninvasive, interventional strategy for treatment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia.