Comparison of the Effectiveness of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Drug Therapy on Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (original) (raw)

Comparison of the Effectiveness of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Drug Therapy on Obsessive-compulsive Disorder

The use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), a form of brain stimulation, is successful and authorized for treating individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder OCD. The study compared the effectiveness of rTMS and drug therapy on OCD. Methods: The study adopted a quasi-experimental method and a pre-post control group design. The statistical population of the present study included all patients referred to specialized clinics in regions 2, 3, and 7 of Tehran City, Iran, from July to September 2022. The study participants included 45 OCD patients who were selected purposefully and were assigned to two experimental groups (rTMS: 15 participants, drug therapy: 15 participants) and a control group with 15 participants. The rTMS treatment was held three sessions a week for four weeks. Therefore, rTMS treatment was performed with the parameters specified below regarding the variables of the present study. For OCD, the supplementary motor area with a frequency of 1 Hz (HZ) for 20 minutes, 1200 pulses, and the F3 and F4 areas were worked with the tablets. The Millon clinical multiaxial inventory-III or checklist-90-revision pre and post-interventions were measured. Data analysis was conducted using the SPSS software, version 26 with an analysis of the covariance test. Results: Findings showed that the differentiation between the rTMS treatment technique and drug administration is significant in OCD (P=0.0001). The decrease in OCD based on considered rTMS was more than the drug therapy group (P=0.0017). Conclusion: This study revealed that rTMS is an effective neurostimulation therapy for OCD. Therefore, rTMS provides better results in terms of treatment effectiveness and clinical response rate. Furthermore, drug treatment appears to have a significant therapeutic effect. In subgroup analysis, it was found that dorsolateral prefrontal cortex stimulation and inhibition produced better treatment effects.