Brief ReportRepetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Reduces Cue-Induced Food Craving in Bulimic Disorders
Section snippets
Methods and Materials
A power calculation indicated that 18 individuals per group were needed to detect an effect size of d = .85 reported in our previous study (13) with 80% power at one-sided α = .05. Therefore, 38 participants (5 male participants, 33 female participants), 18 to 60 years old with BN or Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified-bulimic type (EDNOS-BN, including Binge Eating Disorder) were recruited from the Eating Disorders outpatient department at the Maudsley Hospital, London, and by e-mail
Results
Table 1 shows the baseline characteristics of participants by group; no significant group differences were observed.
Thirty-seven participants completed the procedure. One participant, randomized to real rTMS, dropped out due to discomfort after 4 trains of rTMS. Five participants in each group reported side effects immediately after the rTMS session, i.e., a transient slight headache [χ2(1) = .907; p = .763]. Sixteen in each group reported that they would agree to take part in a treatment study
Discussion
We found that a single session of real rTMS reduces cue-induced food craving in people with bulimic disorders, extending our previous findings (13) to a clinical group. In addition, we observed a significant reduction in bingeing in the 24 hours after the real rTMS compared with the sham rTMS, providing a “proof of concept” for rTMS as a treatment for bulimic disorders. We did not find an immediate effect of rTMS on the urge to binge eat. This is probably due to binge eating being a complex
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Authors FVdE and AC contributed equally to this article.