title: Influencing negative symptoms of schizophrenia with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation: a case study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The present trial was designed to investigate the influence of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on negative schizophrenic symptoms using high-frequency stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in a simple blind randomized design.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was carried out on a 42-year-old patient with schizophrenia (paranoid subtype) with prominent negative symptoms who was first treated with sham rTMS during the first 3 weeks and then with real high frequency during the following 3 weeks. He was rated before and after the sham and after the real rTMS therapy for positive, negative and depressive symptoms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  rTMS was superior to sham treatment in reduction of negative and depressive symptoms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  High-frequency rTMS applied over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex led to a reduction of severity of negative symptoms in a patient with chronic schizophrenia and may be beneficial as an augmentation option to antipsychotics in the treatment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Psychiatry, Masaryk University, Faculty of Medicine and Faculty Hospital Brno, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Radovan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Prikryl
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Psychiatry, Masaryk University, Faculty of Medicine and Faculty Hospital Brno, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Skotakova
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Psychiatry, Masaryk University, Faculty of Medicine and Faculty Hospital Brno, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kasparek
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Psychiatry, Masaryk University, Faculty of Medicine and Faculty Hospital Brno, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ceskova
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Psychiatry, Masaryk University, Faculty of Medicine and Faculty Hospital Brno, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Hana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kucerova
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Psychiatry, Masaryk University, Faculty of Medicine and Faculty Hospital Brno, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Libor
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ustohal