Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2024 Jul 3;14(7):e081751.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-081751.

Efficacy of MRI-guided rTMS for post-traumatic stress disorder by modulating amygdala activity: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Yaochi Zhang  1 , Zhengwu Peng  1 , Nailong Tang  1 , Yuyu Zhang  1 , Nian Liu  1 , Runxin Lv  1 , Yumeng Meng  1 , Min Cai  2 , Huaning Wang  2
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Efficacy of MRI-guided rTMS for post-traumatic stress disorder by modulating amygdala activity: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Yaochi Zhang et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Introduction: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prevalent and severe psychiatric disorder. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex provides limited relief for symptoms of PTSD. This study will be conducted to validate the efficacy of MRI-guided rTMS in targeting the sites most closely associated with the amygdala for patients with PTSD. We hypothesise that the intervention will improve clinical symptoms by decreasing amygdala activity in patients.

Methods and analysis: A randomised, double-blind, sham-controlled trial will be conducted. Forty-eight eligible patients with PTSD will be randomly assigned to receive either active or sham MRI-guided rTMS for 10 consecutive days after the initial MRI scans. MRI scans will be recollected at the end of the intervention. Clinical assessments will be performed at baseline, treatment day 5, treatment day 10, and 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks after completion of the intervention to monitor changes in clinical symptoms. The primary assessment outcome is the change in PTSD symptoms between baseline and treatment day 10, as measured by the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5. Repeated measures analysis of variance will be performed using statistical software SPSS V.26.0. The significance level will be set at 0.05.

Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval has been obtained from the Ethics Committee of Xijing Hospital in Xi'an, China (KY20222176-X-1), and the trial has been registered on ClinicalTrials.gov. The findings of this trial will be disseminated at academic conferences or published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Trial registration number: NCT05544110.

Keywords: neurology; psychiatry; transcranial magnetic stimulation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart of the study design. PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder; rTMS, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Shalev A, Liberzon I, Marmar C. Post-traumatic stress disorder. N Engl J Med 2017;376:2459–69. 10.1056/NEJMra1612499 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rosellini AJ, Liu H, Petukhova MV, et al. . Recovery from DSM-IV post-traumatic stress disorder in the WHO world mental health surveys. Psychol Med 2018;48:437–50. 10.1017/S0033291717001817 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Steenkamp MM, Litz BT, Hoge CW, et al. . Psychotherapy for military-related PTSD: A review of randomized clinical trials. JAMA 2015;314:489–500. 10.1001/jama.2015.8370 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rosellini AJ, Fayyad J, Koenen KC. Patterns and Predictors of the Course of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder[J]. Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Global Perspectives from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2018:240–52.
    1. Jannati A, Oberman LM, Rotenberg A, et al. . Assessing the mechanisms of brain plasticity by transcranial magnetic stimulation. Neuropsychopharmacology 2023;48:191–208. 10.1038/s41386-022-01453-8 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Associated data