Journal of International Psychiatry

[Abstract] Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of portable repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) instrument (PLTK-Home) in the treatment of anxiety disorders in outpatients. Methods: 456 patients with anxiety disorder were divided into RTMS group (n =211) and control group (N = 245) . Both groups were treated with escitalopram, while RTMS group was treated with rTMS. rTMS was given every 20 minutes, twice a day, 5 days a week, 4 weeks as a course. Before and after treatment, the anxiety symptoms were assessed with HAMA; the subjective sleep quality was assessed with PSQI; cognitive function was assessed by RBANS. Results: A total of 419 patients completed the 4-week study. There were 192 ones in rTMS and 227 ones in control groups, respectively. After 4 weeks of treatment, decreasing scores of HAMA (rTMS group: -19.23±4.19; control group: -13.60±5.17) and decreasing scores of PSQI (rTMS Group: -11.75±3.11; control group: -6.73±4.74) were significantly in both groups. The results of RBANS showed that the attention score of the patients in the rTMS group increased significantly after 4 weeks of treatment (rTMS group: 8.51±7.13) , while no significant change was found in the control group; after 4 weeks of treatment, the scores of HAMA, PSQI and RBANS in the rTMS group improved more significantly than those in the control group (P<0.05) . Conclusion: the portable rTMS therapeutic instrument can improve the anxiety and sleep symptoms of the patients with anxiety disorders, and provide a new convenient and popular home therapy for the patients with anxiety disorders.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation; Anxiety; Sleep; Cognitive function