Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as a Potential Tool to Reduce Sexual Arousal

University of Regensburg (UR)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Treatments: Device: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04209309

13-101-0117

Details and patient eligibility

About

Hyper- and hyposexuality occur frequently in a variety of psychiatric disorders and are difficult to treat. While there is meta-analytic evidence for the significant effect of non-invasive brain stimulation on drug and food craving, no study has investigated the potential of this technique to modulate sexual behavior. The efficacy of a single session of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left or right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) to reduce sexual arousal was tested against a sham stimulation.

To test this hypothesis, we employed a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled crossover study design. Nineteen healthy male participants received high-frequency rTMS over the left DLPFC, high-frequency rTMS over the right DLPFC and sham rTMS (each 10 Hz; 110% resting motor threshold; 60 trains with 50 pulses) in randomized and counterbalanced order with a one-week interval between stimulation sessions to avoid carryover effects. Participants were exposed to neutral and sexual cues before and after each intervention and rated their sexual arousal after each block of cue presentation.

Enrollment: 19 patients

Sex: Male

Ages: 18 to 50 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• motor threshold below 55%
• informed consent
• male
• 18-50 years
• heterosexual
• right handedness

Exclusion criteria

• contraindication for TMS
• somatic or mental illnesses
• intake of psychoactive drugs
• left handedness
• homo- or bisexual
• paraphilia

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

---

19 participants in 3 patient groups

leDLPFC

Experimental group

Description:

single session rTMS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 15 min (60 trains with 50 stimuli; 10 sec intertrain interval; 10 Hz; 110% RMT; 3000 pulses; coil positioning over the 10-20 EEG coordinate position F3)

Treatment:

Device: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation

riDLPFC

Experimental group

Description:

single session rTMS of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 15 min (60 trains with 50 stimuli; 10 sec intertrain interval; 10 Hz; 110% RMT; 3000 pulses; coil positioning over the 10-20 EEG coordinate position F4)

Treatment:

Device: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation

shamDLPFC

Sham Comparator group

Description:

single session sham rTMS over the medial prefrontal cortex for 15 min (60 trains with 50 stimuli; 10 sec intertrain interval; 10 Hz; 110% RMT; 3000 pulses; coil positioning over the midline with tilted coil)

Treatment:

Device: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation