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

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
• Interventions: Device: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation

• Registration Number: NCT04209309
• Lead Sponsor: University of Regensburg

Brief Summary

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.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2014-10-01
• Primary Completion: 2016-07-01
• Study Completion: 2016-07-01
• Status Verified: 2019-12
• Study First Submitted: 2019-12-17
• Study First Submitted QC: 2019-12-19
• Last Update Submitted: 2019-12-19
• Study First Posted: 2019-12-24
• Last Update Posted: 2019-12-24

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: Male
• Target Recruitment: 19

Inclusion Criteria

• motor threshold below 55%
• informed consent
• male
• 18-50 years
• heterosexual
• right handedness

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Exclusion Criteria

• contraindication for TMS
• somatic or mental illnesses
• intake of psychoactive drugs
• left handedness
• homo- or bisexual
• paraphilia

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Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
leDLPFC	repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation	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)
riDLPFC	repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation	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)
shamDLPFC	repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation	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)

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change of sexual arousal	immediately before and after the single session of rTMS	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