Objective: To test the acute therapeutic effects of transcranial static magnetic field stimulation (tSMS) of the primary motor cortex in patients with essential tremor.

Background: Growing evidence suggests that overactivity of the motor cortex is involved in the pathophysiology of essential tremor. tSMS is a portable and easy to use non-invasive brain stimulation technique that can reduce cortical excitability in humans. The therapeutic potential of tSMS for essential tremor is unknown.

Method: Twenty-seven patients with essential tremor underwent one 30-minutes session of tSMS over the left or right primary motor cortex (NCT03780426). Before and after tSMS, we assessed hand postural tremor with accelerometry and kinetic tremor with part B of the clinical rating scale for tremor. Statistical analyses were performed with Bayesian statistics.

Results: We found moderate evidence for a reduction of both postural tremor and kinetic tremor after tSMS, with no changes in tremor frequency.

Conclusion: These results causally support the involvement of the primary motor cortex in the pathophysiology of the disease and suggest tSMS as a promising therapeutic approach for essential tremor.

« Back to 2022 International Congress

MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/transcranial-static-magnetic-field-stimulation-of-the-primary-motor-cortex-in-essential-tremor/