A 15-minute-long session is enough to temporarily reduce the craving, study says

Apr 18, 2013 20:31 GMT  ·  By

A new research whose findings have recently been published in the scientific journal Biological Psychiatry says that high frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation can make it easier for smokers to kick the habit.

This is because said magnetic stimulation can help reduce cigarette craving.

The researchers who pieced together this study explain that, according to their investigations, cigarette craving can be substantially reduce by a 15-minute-long session of high frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation.

As explained on Alpha Galileo Foundation, the area of the brain targeted by this procedure is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Said region of the brain is known to be a reward-related one, which is why its being stimulated in this manner translates into cigarette craving's being reduced.

The researchers explain that the 15-minute-long sessions of high-frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation basically helps up the activity levels in reward-related regions of the brain that are affected by nicotine withdrawal.

“One of the elegant aspects of this study is that it suggests that specific manipulations of particular brain circuits may help to protect smokers and possibly people with other addictions from relapsing,” commented on the findings of this investigation the Editor of Biological Psychiatry, Dr. John Krystal.

“While this was only a temporary effect, it raises the possibility that repeated TMS sessions might ultimately be used to help smokers quit smoking. This finding opens the way for further exploration of the use of brain stimulation techniques in smoking cessation treatment,” said researcher later added.

The conclusion that high-frequency magnetic stimulation can help reduce cigarette craving was reached after the researchers observed the behavior of 16 nicotine-dependent volunteers when in the presence of smoking cues.

Some of these volunteers were actually submitted to the procedure before being introduced to the cues, whereas others received placebo therapy.

The experiments and investigations were carried out by Dr. Xingbao Li and his fellow researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina.