Category: Parkinson’s Disease: Clinical Trials
Objective: To investigate the potential of transcranial static magnetic field stimulation (tSMS) as a non-pharmacological, non-invasive, home-based treatment to manage levodopa-induced dyskinesias (LIDs) in Parkinson’s disease.
Background: A promising approach to treat LIDs is offered by non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques. Several relatively small, randomized studies suggest that presumably reducing the excitability of motor cortical areas may be effective for reducing LIDs. tSMS can reduce cortical excitability and is a portable NIBS technique, which makes it attractive for shifting the NIBS paradigm from a center-based to a home-based therapeutic model.
Method: We conducted a randomized sham-controlled double-blind parallel trial to test the ability of repeated sessions of tSMS to safely reduce LIDs in PD patients (NCT02657681). Patients were randomly assigned to receive 30-min sessions of either real or sham tSMS, one session per day, for 9 days over two weeks (5 days of treatment, two days of rest, four days of treatment). Patients were allowed to receive treatment in the hospital or self-deliver it at home. All but one preferred home treatment.
Results: A total of 50 patients were randomized, 25 were randomly assigned to real tSMS, 25 to sham tSMS. Of them, 42 (21 real, 21 sham) were analyzed for the primary outcome. The objective evaluation of the Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale (UDysRS, primary outcome) significantly decreased after the treatment compared to baseline, but there was no significant difference between patients who received real and patients that received sham treatment. No changes were observed in the MDS-UPDRS-III scores. Conversely, the Patient’s Global Rating of Change was significantly higher (i.e. improvement) in patients that received real treatment compared to patients that received sham treatment. No serious adverse events occurred during the study.
Conclusion: These results suggest that repeated sessions of home-based tSMS of the motor cortex are safe and may provide subjective benefit for the treatment of LIDs in Parkinson’s disease.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
M. Dileone, C. Ammann, V. Catanzaro, C. Pagge, R. Piredda, MHG. Monje, I. Navalpotro-Gómez, A. Bergareche, MC. Rodriguez-Oroz, L. Vela, F. Alonso-Frech, MJ. Catalán-Alonso, JA. Molina, N. López-Ariztegui, A. Oliviero, JA. Obeso, G. Foffani. Home-based transcranial static magnetic field stimulation of the motor cortex for treating levodopa-induced dyskinesias in Parkinson’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2022; 37 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/home-based-transcranial-static-magnetic-field-stimulation-of-the-motor-cortex-for-treating-levodopa-induced-dyskinesias-in-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed July 13, 2025.« Back to 2022 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/home-based-transcranial-static-magnetic-field-stimulation-of-the-motor-cortex-for-treating-levodopa-induced-dyskinesias-in-parkinsons-disease/