Trans-cranial Magnetic Stimulation to Alleviate Addictions
Jun 9, 2018

Chaos Store
Core Spirit member since Dec 24, 2020
Reading time 4 min.

According to government figures, 21.5 million Americans suffer from a substance abuse disorder, alcoholism being the most frequent. As of 2014, 64,000 lost their lives to some type of overdose. Although a lot of treatment alternatives are available, whatever the sort of dependence, recidivism rates are extremely high. Currently, researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina think they could reboot the brain’s reward center and halt addiction. This is achieved through something called repeated trans-cranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). What’s TMS and has it been demonstrated to assist those gripped by addiction?

TMS is a noninvasive procedure in which a coil is placed on the scalp, which passes magnetic impulses through the skull. It’s believed that a varying magnetic field applied to specific areas of the brain increases coherence between cortical regions–basically improving communication between distinct brain areas. The FDA accepted this procedure a decade ago to help alleviate the symptoms of depression when antidepressants didn’t get the job done.

The frequency exerted during TMS may be as high as 10-20 Hertz or as low as 1 Hertz, depending on an individual’s motor threshold. Motor threshold is set by how much frequency must make a patient’s leg or thumb jump, when TMS is placed on the brain’s motor strip. It does not hurt. Patients report feeling a tapping sensation on the head. Sessions last 30 minutes and generally, therapy occurs a few times a week for six weeks.

As it is applied to the scalp, deeper regions of the brain cannot be reached. But, TMS has shown to assist people that have depression by stimulating part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. Physicians are considering TMS for different ailments too, such as Parkinson’s, epilepsy, chronic pain, and schizophrenia. While brain stimulation has been used for decades to deal with psychiatric disorders, only recently have scientists been experimenting with TMS to deal with addiction.

The idea was inspired by a 2013 National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) study, headed by neuroscientists Antonello Bonci and Billy Chen. They used rats who were addicted to cocaine, they would risk a series of painful electric shocks in order to receive their fix. The rodents had been altered, which makes the neurons in their brains responsive to light. When the scientists stimulated the region of the brain known for impulse control, the rats could kick the habit instantly. Bonci in the paper wondered if TMS may have a similar impact.

Luca Rossi–an Italian doctor addicted to crack cocaine along with his father, a chemist, after learning of the study, chose to approach Italian addiction specialist Luigi Gallimberti with the idea. Since then, Gallimberti’s laboratory has treated more than 300 addicts with TMS. For addiction, normally the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the reward centre of the brain, is stimulated. This is considered to be where addiction originates from. Regrettably, we don’t know all of the intricacies of how addiction impacts the mind. Because of this, there is no present treatment based on altering the neural circuit accountable for addiction, yet.

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is the place of the brain’s reward centre and therefore, is accountable for addiction. Image credit: National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH).

One thing we do understand is that addiction hijacks the brain’s reward circuit. It floods the brain with dopamine–that gives us warm, euphoric feeling. Because of this, the brain’s dopamine receptors become accustomed to being flush with the feel good neurotransmitter. After awhile they get used to getting a specific amount, a tolerance is built up, and thus the individual wants more and more simply to get exactly the exact same result, leading to dependence. Currently, researchers in Medical University of South Carolina are the first to illustrate that TMS can decrease brain activity related to addiction in cases of chronic alcohol and cocaine misuse. These findings were published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. 30080-6/abstract “Biological Psychiatry “)

Researchers carried on two concurrent studies. Study author Tonisha Kearney-Ramos, Ph.D. led these, which were supervised by senior author Colleen Hanlon, PhD. The first part comprised 24 alcoholics and the next, 25 cocaine addicts. Each underwent an actual TMS session and a one, where investigators pretended to administer TMS, but didn’t really turn on the device. Scientists took brain scans with an fMRI before and after TMS occurred, to rate each participant’s reaction to medication or alcohol cues, such as being shown a liquor bottle.

Many times, brain activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex gets raised once the individual witnesses something associated with their addiction. This is known as cue reactivity. When they underwent bona fide TMS, participants revealed less cue reactivity than following the sham session. What remains to be seen yet, is whether these changes lead to decreased alcohol or drug usage. According to the investigators, repeated TMS sessions may do the job. Cue reactivity is a huge part of a lot of different ailments too, such as anxiety, PTSD, and traumatic brain injury. TMS might have the ability to assist these patients too.

To Find out More about TMS, click here:


Leave your comments / questions for this practitioner

To write a comment please
or
Services
Category filter
Concern filter
Type filter
Sort
 

All categories

Brain Hacking
$120 USD
mentorship session
Online Brain Fitness Coaching

This service consists on helping you to find the equilibrium of your brain energetic stages, so you are able to achieve more meaningful results by improving your inner executive brain resources, such as focus, attention, creativity, planning, and decision making, both at work and in your personal life.

Such service consists of a series of guided coaching sessions that will lead you to an efficient brain fitness optimization that will improve the quality of your life.

The objective of the coaching sessions is to assist you on finding and working your very own best inner potential, from your inside to your outside, to enhance your brain capacities, be able to achieve more meaningful results, and improve your well being.

Proper Brain Fitness will help you on achieving the following:

1. Resignify old toxic conditioned paradigms that are currently limiting your potential.
2. Balance your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual energetic stages present in the brain.
3. Optimize your quality of life habits, by enhancing proper brain nutrition and brain fitness based on physical activity.
4.Discover and design your own routines to consciously maintain your brain fitness.
5. Rewire and re-program your brain with new set of values, and beliefs to stick and practice based on their own desired experience and quality of life.

Price is set for individual session hours, however, discounts will apply according to previously agreed number of pre set sessions.

Service available also for Spanish and Portuguese speakers.

Johann Strerath
Neuromodulation Technology
$15 USD
healing session
Therapeutic Neuromodualtion

A dynamic, science based process designed to activate your neurology and release pain (emotional & physical), connected to a somatic (bodily) address.

You will learn how to use your body, breath & memories to clear blockages and completely remove the underlying reasons for your discomfort or illness.

Neuromodulation is used to treat and enhance quality of life in individuals who suffer severe chronic illness due to persistent pain, spasticity, movement disorders, epilepsy, ischaemia, cardiac, bowel and bladder dysfunction, spinal injury, visual, auditory and specific psychiatric disorders.

Agnieszka Furtak
Neuromodulation Technology
$149 USD
consultation
Online medical well-being diagnostic - PNI

This is an online assessment followed by a 90-minute feedback session.

The online diagnostic, designed by a renowned neurosurgeon, uses the fascinating science of PNI (psychoendoneuroimmunology) and PNEI (psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology) to assess your overall health, resilience, well-being and mental state without invasive blood tests.
It can give an indication of you levels of stress, motivation, meaning and purpose.

Michelle L. Raymond
Brain Hacking
$1000 USD
therapy session
Welcome to Eden by Lilas

REBIRTH. TRANSFORMATION ENERGIES AND SOUL

SACRED TANTRA OF THE TRINITY

LilasEdenLove

Related Articles

View All
Registered individuals enjoy all the possibilities of Core Spirit.