Transcranial magnetic stimulation for schizophrenia: Potential and risks

Recently, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has increasingly been used to investigate the neurobiology of schizophrenia. In those studies, researchers applied TMS in combination with motor evoked potentials (TMS/MEPs) and high density electroencephalograms (TMS/hd-EEG)[1]. The studies revealed significant impairments in cortical excitability, inhibition, and oscillatory activity, which are more prominent in the frontal brain areas, in patients suffering from schizophrenia compared to healthy controls[1]. Future TMS studies may help explain the underlying neurobiology of schizophrenia, and TMS may help monitor and perhaps further optimize the effectiveness of treatment interventions in patients with this disease. However, despite the potential of using TMS in the investigation of the underlying neurobiology of schizophrenia, three critical notes are essential.