ReviewAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences2014
Transcranial magnetic stimulation in the treatment of substance addiction.
Review in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 103 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
103 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 193 citations in OpenAlex.
- Combination of non-invasive brain stimulation with mindfulness-based interventions for anxiety and depression symptoms: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- The structural and functional brain alternations in tobacco use disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- A Meta-Analysis of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Substance and Food Craving: What Effect Do Modulators Have?Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Transcranial electrical and magnetic stimulation (tES and TMS) for addiction medicine: A consensus paper on the present state of the science and the road ahead.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Effects of Non-invasive Brain Stimulation on Stimulant Craving in Users of Cocaine, Amphetamine, or Methamphetamine: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2019Pooled it
- Can deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (DTMS) be used to treat substance use disorders (SUD)? A systematic review.BMC psychiatry · 2018Pooled it
- Evidence for safety and tolerability of transcranial magnetic stimulation for substance use disorders.Brain stimulationPooled it
- High-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is associated with sustained improvement in cannabis use disorder: a one-year, two-phase, three-arm randomized study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Trial
- No Effects of rTMS on Performance Monitoring and Attentional Bias in Patients With Alcohol Use Disorder: A Pilot Study.Addiction biology · 2025Trial
- A Randomized Controlled Trial of Medial Prefrontal Cortex Theta Burst Stimulation for Cocaine Use Disorder: A Three-Month Feasibility and Brain Target Engagement Study.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025Trial
- Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Patients With Opioid Use Disorder: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Randomized Trial.Addiction biology · 2025Trial
- Effects of bilateral repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on prospective memory in patients with schizophrenia: A double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial.Neuropsychopharmacology reports · 2024Trial
- Repetitive deep TMS in alcohol dependent patients halts progression of white matter changes in early abstinence.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2024Trial
- Reduced executive and reward connectivity is associated with smoking cessation response to repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation: A double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial.Brain imaging and behavior · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Testing the role of the posterior cingulate cortex in processing salient stimuli in cannabis users: an rTMS study.The European journal of neuroscience · 2019Trial
- Targeting Withdrawal Symptoms in Men Addicted to Methamphetamine With Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA psychiatry · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) administration to heavy cannabis users.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2018Trial
- A Randomised Controlled Trial of Neuronavigated Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) in Anorexia Nervosa.PloS one · 2016Trial
43 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive method of brain stimulation used to treat a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders, but is still in the early stages of study as addiction treatment. We identified 19 human studies using repetitive TMS (rTMS) to manipulate drug craving or use, which exposed a total of 316 adults to active rTMS. Nine studies involved tobacco, six alcohol, three cocaine, and one methamphetamine. The majority of studies targeted high-frequency (5-20 Hz; expected to stimulate neuronal activity) rTMS pulses to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Only five studies were controlled clinical trials: two of four nicotine trials found decreased cigarette smoking; the cocaine trial found decreased cocaine use. Many aspects of optimal treatment remain unknown, including rTMS parameters, duration of treatment, relationship to cue-induced craving, and concomitant treatment. The mechanisms of rTMS potential therapeutic action in treating addictions are poorly understood, but may involve increased dopamine and glutamate function in corticomesolimbic brain circuits and modulation of neural activity in brain circuits that mediate cognitive processes relevant to addiction, such as response inhibition, selective attention, and reactivity to drug-associated cues. rTMS treatment of addiction must be considered experimental at this time, but appears to have a promising future.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.