SynthesisNeurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology2023
Effect of non-invasive brain stimulation on conscious disorder in patients after brain injury: a network meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
6 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Noninvasive neuromodulation for disorders of consciousness: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis.Critical care (London, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of neuromodulation and multimodal therapies for traumatic brain injury-induced disorders of consciousness: an updated umbrella review.Frontiers in neurologyPooled it
- Perturbational complexity index in assessing responsiveness to rTMS treatment in patients with disorders of consciousness: a cross-over randomized controlled trial study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2024Trial
- Efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for consciousness recovery in children with disorders of consciousness following traumatic brain injury.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- The efficacy and safety of bilateral synchronous transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation for prolonged disorders of consciousness: a multicenter, double-blind, stratified, randomized controlled trial protocol.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Article
- A protocol for a multicenter randomized and personalized controlled trial using rTMS in patients with disorders of consciousness.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
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 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo systematically evaluate the rehabilitation effect of non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) on disorder of consciousness (DOC) after brain injury and compare the effects of different NIBSs.
methodsRandomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the effect of NIBS on DOC after brain injury were retrieved from the PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang Data, and CBM databases from inception to October 2022. The risk of bias and quality of the trials were assessed following the Cochrane Handbook of Systematic Reviews and the physiotherapy evidence database Jadad Scale. Statistical analysis was conducted with RevMan 5.4 and R Studio. This study was registered on PROSPERO (No. CRD42022371334).
resultsA total of 28 articles were included involving 1118 patients. Meta-analysis showed that NIBS combined with routine rehabilitation had the highest effect than the routine rehabilitation and the sham NIBS combined with routine rehabilitation. The cumulative probability ranking results showed that the rTMS was best. The order of network meta-analysis with GCS (Glasgow Coma Scale) as the outcome index is rTMS combined with routine rehabilitation > tDCS combined with routine rehabilitation > routine rehabilitation > NIBS sham stimulation combined with routine rehabilitation. The order of network meta-analysis with CRS-R (Coma Recovery Scale-Revised) as the outcome index is rTMS combined with routine rehabilitation > tDCS combined with routine rehabilitation > NIBS sham stimulation combined with routine rehabilitation > routine rehabilitation. For patients with different conditions of DOC, the subgroup analysis results showed that rTMS improved the effect of patients with severe DOC better than those with unclear conditions of DOC, but the overall results of the two groups were not significantly different. On the contrary, the effect of tDCS on patients with DOC whose condition was not clear was better than that on patients with severe DOC, and the effect on patients with severe DOC was not significant (P > 0.05). In terms of safety, only 9 articles mentioned ADRs in the included literature, including 8 articles without ADRs, and 1 article with ADRs.
conclusionBased on the research results of various indicators, NIBS can improve DOC after brain injury, and the rTMS is the best. Limited by the number and the quality of literature, the above conclusions need more high-quality research to verify.
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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.