Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as a Potential Tool to Reduce Sexual Arousal

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Hyper- and hyposexuality occur frequently in a variety of psychiatric disorders and are difficult to treat. While there is meta-analytic evidence for the significant effect of non-invasive brain stimulation on drug and food craving, no study has investigated the potential of this technique to modulate sexual behavior. The efficacy of a single session of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left or right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) to reduce sexual arousal was tested against a sham stimulation. To test this hypothesis, we employed a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled crossover study design. Nineteen healthy male participants received high-frequency rTMS over the left DLPFC, high-frequency rTMS over the right DLPFC and sham rTMS (each 10 Hz; 110% resting motor threshold; 60 trains with 50 pulses) in randomized and counterbalanced order with a one-week interval between stimulation sessions to avoid carryover effects. Participants were exposed to neutral and sexual cues before and after each intervention and rated their sexual arousal after each block of cue presentation.

Official Title
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Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as a Potential Tool to Reduce Sexual Arousal

Conditions
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Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Intervention / Treatment
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* Device: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: motor threshold below 55% informed consent male 18-50 years heterosexual right handedness Exclusion Criteria: contraindication for TMS somatic or mental illnesses intake of psychoactive drugs left handedness homo- or bisexual paraphilia

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 50 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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Male

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Basic Science
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: leDLPFC<br>single session rTMS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 15 min (60 trains with 50 stimuli; 10 sec intertrain interval; 10 Hz; 110% RMT; 3000 pulses; coil positioning over the 10-20 EEG coordinate position F3) | Device: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation<br> <br> |
| Experimental: riDLPFC<br>single session rTMS of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 15 min (60 trains with 50 stimuli; 10 sec intertrain interval; 10 Hz; 110% RMT; 3000 pulses; coil positioning over the 10-20 EEG coordinate position F4) | Device: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation<br> <br> |
| Sham Comparator: shamDLPFC<br>single session sham rTMS over the medial prefrontal cortex for 15 min (60 trains with 50 stimuli; 10 sec intertrain interval; 10 Hz; 110% RMT; 3000 pulses; coil positioning over the midline with tilted coil) | Device: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation<br> <br> |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Change of sexual arousal | short 10-item version of the Affect and Arousal Scale, which captures perceived genital, autonomic and psychological sexual arousal as well as state sexual desire | immediately before and after the single session of rTMS | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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sexual arousal