Second Trial of Repeated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in a Schizophrenic Patient with Persistent Auditory Hallucinations

Case Report

Psychiatry Investigation 2006;3(2):99-102.

Young-Chul Chung, MD1;Eun-Sung Im, MD2;Gwang-Hyun Cho, MD2; and Myung-Hwan Ko, MD3;

¹;Department of Psychiatry, Chonbuk National University Medical School, Jeonju, ²;Department of Psychiatry, Chonbuk National University Hospital, Jeonju, ³;Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Chonbuk National University Hospital, Jeonju, Korea

Abstract

<p class="MsoPlainText" style="word-spacing: 1; line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0" align="left"><font face="HY중고딕" size="2">We report the case of a 30-year-old male schizophrenia patient with persistent auditory hallucinations (AHs) who had received 1 Hz repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to the left temporoparietal cortex in 2 separate trials. He had suffered from severe persistent AHs for more than 5 years. Four different combinations of two antipsychotics were tried at high doses, without any observable beneficial effects. He was admitted for the administration of rTMS. At the start of the 2^nd
week of the 1^st
rTMS trial, he reported a substantial improvement of AHs with a further reduction to 30% of baseline severity at the end of the 3^rd
week. However, AHs were returned to baseline levels at about 2 months after discharge. The 2^nd
rTMS trial produced no therapeutic benefit. The length of beneficial effects of the 1^st
rTMS trial as well as possible effects of the 2^nd
rTMS trial on the returned AHs needs to be established with a large sample size.

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Key words Auditory hallucinations;Transcranial magnetic stimulation.