Comparisons of transcranial alternating current stimulation and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment therapy for insomnia: a pilot study

• Published in: General psychiatry 2024-02, Vol.37 (1), p.e101184
• Main Authors: Shao, Ziqiang, Guo, Yongjian, Yue, Lirong, Liu, Xiaoyang, Liu, Jiayi, Zhao, Xumeng, Sheng, Xiaona, Yu, Dahua, Zhu, Yifei, Yuan, Kai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavior; Clinical Trials, Phase I as Topic; Electroencephalography; Experiments; Females; Insomnia; Letter; Medical research; Sleep; Transcranial magnetic stimulation; Variance analysis
• ISSN: 2517-729X; 2096-5923; 2517-729X
• DOI: 10.1136/gpsych-2023-101184

Currently, tACS has been showing results for initial sleep regulation and insomnia treatment.7 8 Since the role of the theta rhythm as a marker of sleepiness during wakefulness and early phases of spontaneous sleep onset is well known,9 the theta band could potentially serve as a target for modulation. [...]abnormalities in neural oscillatory activity in the theta band of the brain in patients with insomnia have been observed.10 11 More importantly, previous studies found that 5 Hz tACS of the DLPFC before bed in healthy subjects induced an accelerated effect on the sleep onset process,12 and theta-tACS during wakefulness resulted in increased sleep pressure and greater slow-wave activity in sleep after the stimulation.13 Therefore, frequency-specific modulation of theta activity might have a therapeutic effect on patients with insomnia disorder. [...]few studies have compared the efficacy of the two NIBS techniques for insomnia disorder. [...]the current study investigated the efficacy of low-frequency rTMS and theta-tACS for insomnia disorder, and a further comparison was performed. [...]another experiment was conducted to investigate whether a personalised frequency of theta-tACS could obtain better efficacy for patients with insomnia disorder. (C) Patients with insomnia disorder treated with a personalised frequency had a significant decrease in PSQI scores at the 1-month follow-up period compared with post-treatment scores (Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test, p=0.001), with no significant change in ISI scores.