Effects Of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation On Attention Bias And Craving In Methamphetamine Dependence

ObjectiveRepeated transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to explore its effects on attention bias and craving of MA dependent patients.MethodFifty MA dependent patients were divided into two groups: experimental group and control group,25 cases each.Use the High frequency(10 Hz)rTMS to stimulate the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of MA dependent patients,and employ the addictive Stroop task and the visual simulator ruler(VAS)to evaluate attention bias and craving of addicts before and after the treatment.ResultT-test was used to compare attention bias and craving between groups:(1)Behavioral indexes: before treatment,the average reaction time of the two groups is meaningless in statistics compared with the differences between them(P>0.05);After treatment,the average reaction time of the experimental group was faster than that of the control group(P<0.05).However,the difference of error numbers between pretherapy and post treatment has no statistical significance(P>0.05).(2)VAS indexes:before treatment,the craving level has no obvious differences between these two groups(P>0.05),while the VAS score of the experimental group was lower than that of the control group after treatment(P<0.05).(3)Correlation between average response and VAS: There exists a positive correlation between VAS and average response.Conclusion1.rTMS can effectively reduce the level of psychological craving of MAdependent patients and assist to decrease the occurrence of relapse.2.rTMS can improve the attention bias of MA dependents.3.stroop task may be an objective indicator of craving and MA dependence therapy.