1. Sign our petition calling on Cochrane to withdraw their review of Exercise Therapy for CFS here.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Guest, the 'News in Brief' for the week beginning 18th March 2024 is here.
    Dismiss Notice
  3. Welcome! To read the Core Purpose and Values of our forum, click here.
    Dismiss Notice

Transcranial magnetic stimulation - brain stimulation

Discussion in 'Other treatments' started by Andy, Mar 16, 2021.

  1. Andy

    Andy Committee Member

    Messages:
    21,814
    Location:
    Hampshire, UK
    Copied post from the Solve ME News thread

    From a Solve email.

    Solve M.E. Partners with UCLA on ME/CFS Research
    on Brain Stimulation

    First time ME/CFS included in UCLA program

    We’re excited to announce that Solve M.E. has partnered with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Iris Cantor Women’s Health Center to expand ME/CFS research through their Annual Health Pilot Program—the first time an ME/CFS study has been included. Solve M.E. will support a study by the UCLA Neuromodulation Division on a promising investigational treatment. The partnership is generously supported by Karl Zeile, a Solve M.E. board member, and Dian Zeile.

    Fifteen female subjects will receive 20 sessions of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS), a non-invasive brain stimulation technique with demonstrated efficacy for treatment of depression, pain, sleep, and cognitive symptoms which are common in patients with ME/CFS.

    The treatment will include stimulation to two sites in the brain that can help relieve these symptoms (the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and primary motor cortex). Changes in brain activity will be monitored with high-density electroencephalography which can help to improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying treatment of ME/CFS.

    “We anticipate that rTMS treatment will significantly improve many of the symptoms of ME/CFS. Positive results from this study will provide proof-of-concept evidence for a novel rTMS treatment approach for ME/CFS to be validated in a future double-blind, randomized control trial,” said Juliana Corlier, assistant project scientist and Andrew F. Leuchter, MD, Professor of Psychiatry.

    Solve M.E. Chief Scientific Officer Sadie Whittaker remarked, “We are thrilled that ME/CFS, a disease diagnosed four-fold more in women than in men, was included in the UCLA Iris Cantor Center Annual Health Pilot Program and could not be more excited about this project. We believe that this partnership with UCLA will help increase awareness of ME/CFS and open up conversations about how ME/CFS is diagnosed within UCLA Health.”
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 23, 2021
  2. duncan

    duncan Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    1,572
    :eek::(
     
    MEMarge and Hutan like this.
  3. duncan

    duncan Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    1,572
    Why?

    If the treatment doesn't work, what are the implications? If it does, similar question: What inferences will be derived?
     
    Snow Leopard, Hutan and MEMarge like this.
  4. Jaybee00

    Jaybee00 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    1,860
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 23, 2021
  5. 5vforest

    5vforest Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    201
    Location:
    San Francisco, CA
    MEMarge likes this.
  6. Hutan

    Hutan Moderator Staff Member

    Messages:
    26,534
    Location:
    Aotearoa New Zealand
    I agree with your query @duncan. It doesn't sound as though the trial will have a control arm and blinding. Which means any result won't really tell us much. Did SolveME choose this study?
     
    Wyva and Snow Leopard like this.
  7. Hutan

    Hutan Moderator Staff Member

    Messages:
    26,534
    Location:
    Aotearoa New Zealand
    Snow Leopard linked a presentation on the placebo response here:
    Viewpoint: “It’s All in Your Head”—Medicine’s Silent Epidemic
    TMS is often claimed to be useful for depression. But it may well just be a very effective placebo. Here's an image from that set of slides - it did no better than a good sham treatment and the benefit was not sustained.

    Screen Shot 2021-04-23 at 6.26.10 PM.png
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2021
    RedFox, MEMarge, Trish and 3 others like this.

Share This Page