title: Long-Term Distributed Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Tinnitus: A Feasibility Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess feasibility and tolerability of long-term distributed therapeutic rTMS for refractory tinnitus, distributed over seven months.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eight subjects with refractory tinnitus underwent five weekly sessions of 1800 pulses of 1 Hz rTMS targeted toward the temporoparietal junction. Five weeks later (study week 10), subjects meeting predefined responder criteria entered a monthly rTMS treatment phase, for the next five months. Outcome measures were subject satisfaction and compliance, tinnitus severity daily diaries, standardized tinnitus self-rating scales, and adverse events.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Subject satisfaction was high, and compliance was virtually 100%. The tinnitus handicap inventory and mini-tinnitus questionnaire scores improved significantly at study week 5 compared with baseline. There were four responders at study week 5; three responders at study week 10; and one responder at study week 30. There were no serious adverse events.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study demonstrated that rTMS can be delivered in a distributed schedule that is well-tolerated, feasible and may prove to be clinically beneficial. A long-term distributed rTMS schedule for tinnitus may warrant investigation as an alternative to the short-term aggregated treatment schedules more frequently used previously. For the many varied therapeutic uses of rTMS (established and investigational), treatment schedules are relatively unexplored, and deserve further attention.
authors.affiliation: Non-invasive Brain Stimulation Laboratory, Burke Medical Research Institute, White Plains, NY, USA.|Division of Clinical Neurophysiology, Weill-Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Labar
authors.affiliation: Non-invasive Brain Stimulation Laboratory, Burke Medical Research Institute, White Plains, NY, USA.|Division of Clinical Neurophysiology, Weill-Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Amy S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Labar
authors.affiliation: Non-invasive Brain Stimulation Laboratory, Burke Medical Research Institute, White Plains, NY, USA.|Division of Clinical Neurophysiology, Weill-Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Dylan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Edwards
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014012:Tinnitus / Q000628:therapy*; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Auditory cortex stimulation; cerebral cortex stimulation; neurostimulation; tinnitus; transcranial magnetic stimulation