New research indicates TMS could curb cravings
A 9-week study of 16 obese patients who received repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) or a sham treatment suggests that TMS may help obese patients reduce cravings and shed pounds — but these are very early days, and the findings needs to be replicated in much longer, larger studies to confirm safety and efficacy, researchers caution.
Livio Luzi, MD, professor of physiology at the University of Milan and San Raffaele Scientific Institute, in Milan, Italy, presented his findings during a session on weight-loss intervention methodology on June 12 at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) 2016 Scientific Sessions.
“The idea came to me when I heard a presentation in Europe where psychiatrists were using this technique for addiction disorders,” he told Medscape Medical News. The procedure was approved about 7 years ago by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat major depression. Moreover, European regulators recently approved TMS for smoking cessation and a recent study (Biol Psychiatry. 2013;73: 714-720) showed benefit for this, he noted.
Repetitive TMS works by stimulating the reward centers of the brain, and since “obesity can be considered a food addiction and the reward pathway is the same” as in other addictions, Dr Luzi speculated that TMS could quell food cravings — which it did in this 9-week study. Now “I am waiting for the results at 6 months” from the ongoing study, he said.
“It’s the most impressive thing I’ve seen at the whole meeting,” session moderator Frederico GS Toledo, MD, associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania enthused to Dr Luzi.
To Medscape Medical News, he commented, “It is very promising preliminary data and has the potential to become a groundbreaking alternative, but it’s very important that we do the 6-month or even longer efficacy studies and long-term safety studies” and also look at weight-loss maintenance, he added.
To date, there are a few options to treat obesity — lifestyle modification, drugs, devices such as gastric balloons, and bariatric surgery, he continued. “If this research evolves and shows efficacy and safety, [TMS] would be [another] option, and that’s why I think it is so important and very promising preliminary data,” Dr Toledo summarized.
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