Trial reportBritish journal of anaesthesia2025
Motor cortex repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in fibromyalgia: a multicentre randomised controlled trial.
Trial report in British journal of anaesthesia, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07642882 (Analgesic Efficacy of Multisite rTMS in Depressed and Nondepressed Patients With Fibromyalgia and Prediction of the Response), which is not on this map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Analgesic Efficacy of Multisite rTMS in Depressed and Nondepressed Patients With Fibromyalgia and Prediction of the Response: a Double-Blind Randomized Sham-Controlled Study.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pain in People With Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) Undergoing or Following Surgery: A Systematic Narrative Review.Pain research & management · 2026Pooled it
- Trial
- Comparative Efficacy of Non-invasive Brain Stimulation for Pain, Anxiety, and Depression: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis.Pain and therapy · 2026Review
- Clinical utility and prospective of TMS-EEG: Updated review from an international expert group.Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2026Review
- An update on the effects of cerebellar transcranial magnetic stimulation on cognitive function.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2026Review
- Efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on postoperative pain in patients undergoing video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery: study protocol for a prospective, single-center, randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Controllable Pulse Parameter Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Fibromyalgia: A Randomized Control Study.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- Descending Pain Modulation in Fibromyalgia: A Short Review of Mechanisms and Biomarkers.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Differential Effects of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Mood and Pain Symptoms in People With Chronic Pain and Major Depressive Disorders-A Review.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Review
- Disrupted Sensorimotor Network Integration in Women With Fibromyalgia Revealed by Resting-State Functional MRI.Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of NeuroimagingArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
23 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDespite affecting 2-4% of the population worldwide, fibromyalgia often remains refractory to treatment. Here we report the first international randomised double-blind, sham-controlled trial developed to assess the efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) as an add-on therapy for fibromyalgia.
methodsWomen aged ≥18 yr with fibromyalgia refractory to best available treatment were enrolled in Brazil, France, and Japan, and randomised to 10 Hz motor cortex (M1) rTMS, 3000 pulses day
resultsWe randomised 101 women (mean age 48 [range 25-83] yr) into active (n=52) or sham (n=49) arms. Bayesian analysis revealed a 99.4% probability of ≥50% pain reduction at week 8 in the active group vs sham (odds ratio [OR] 3.04; 95% credible interval [95% CrI] 1.26-8.06), with a number needed to treat of 4.54. Frequentist analysis confirmed that relative pain reduction was higher in the active than in the sham group (40.4% vs 18.4%, P=0.028). At week 16, this probability reduced to 34.2% (OR 0.815; 95% CrI 0.313-2.1), but the likelihood of FIQ score reduction was 79.1%. The intervention appeared safe.
conclusionsAdd-on M1-repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation reduced pain intensity up to 8 weeks in women with fibromyalgia. Although analgesic effects waned, functional improvements remained during extended maintenance at week 16.
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.