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Enhancing cognitive training effects in Alzheimer's disease: rTMS as an add-on treatment
Bagattini C, Zanni M, Barocco F, Caffarra P, Brignani D, Miniussi C, Defanti CA.. Brain stimulation, 2020-09-28
Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis
The treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the field of non-pharmacological interventions is a challenging issue, given the limited benefits of the available drugs. Cognitive training (CT) represents a commonly recommended strategy in AD. Recently, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has gained increasing attention as a promising therapeutic tool for the treatment of AD, given its ability of enhancing neuroplasticity. In the present randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study, we aimed at investigating the add-on effect of a high frequency rTMS protocol applied over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) combined with a face-name associative memory CT in the continuum of AD pathology. Fifty patients from a very early to a moderate phase of dementia were randomly assigned to one of two groups: CT plus real rTMS or CT plus placebo rTMS. The results showed that the improvement in the trained associative memory induced with rTMS was superior to that obtained with CT alone. Interestingly, the extent of the additional improvement was affected by disease severity and levels of education, with less impaired and more educated patients showing a greater benefit. When testing for generalization to non-trained cognitive functions, results indicated that patients in CT-real group showed also a greater improvement in visuospatial reasoning than those in the CT-sham group. Interestingly, this improvement persisted over 12 weeks after treatment beginning. The present study provides important hints on the promising therapeutic use of rTMS in AD.
Key findings
- The results showed that the improvement in the trained associative memory induced with rTMS was superior to that obtained with CT alone.
- When testing for generalization to non-trained cognitive functions, results indicated that patients in CT-real group showed also a greater improvement in visuospatial reasoning than those in the CT-sham group.
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Study details
- Evidence strengthHigh
How this study scored 72/100
Published in a peer-reviewed journal, and it is a randomised controlled trial. Scored zero for sample size and effect reported because the record does not state it. We have no data on journal's citation record, times cited, citations per year, impact for its field and year, cited by studies here, still being cited, senior author's track record, institution's track record and multi-centre collaboration, so those were left out: it earned 42 of the 58 points we could judge it on, which is 72 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 7 / 10 | Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Brain stimulation) |
| Journal's citation record | — / 4 | No journal record from OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Study design | 11 / 12 | A randomised controlled trial (from PubMed type “Randomized Controlled Trial”) |
| Strength of evidence | 5 / 5 | Rated “high” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 2 / 5 | 2020 — within 10 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 3 / 3 | Studied in people (pubmed indexes it as a clinical or observational study) |
| Randomised / blinded | 2 / 2 | Randomised and blinded or placebo-controlled (as stated in the record) |
| Times cited | — / 7 | No citation count (not found in OpenAlex) — left out of this score |
| Citations per year | — / 5 | No citation count or no year — left out of this score |
| Impact for its field and year | — / 6 | No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score |
| Cited by studies here | — / 6 | Not yet checked against this library's citation graph — left out of this score |
| Still being cited | — / 4 | No yearly citation counts — left out of this score |
| Senior author's track record | — / 4 | Senior author's record not available — left out of this score |
| Institution's track record | — / 3 | No institution listed in OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Multi-centre collaboration | — / 3 | Institutions not listed — left out of this score |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 33002645) |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Points | 42 / 58 | Scored on 11 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 42 of the 58 points we could judge it on is 72 out of 100. |
| Total | 72 / 100 | — |
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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record names 7 authors; APA and Vancouver show the first six, BibTeX and the downloads carry all of them. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Bagattini, C., Zanni, M., Barocco, F., Caffarra, P., Brignani, D., Miniussi, C., et al. (2020). Enhancing cognitive training effects in Alzheimer's disease: rTMS as an add-on treatment. Brain stimulation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2020.09.010
Vancouver
Bagattini C, Zanni M, Barocco F, Caffarra P, Brignani D, Miniussi C, et al. Enhancing cognitive training effects in Alzheimer's disease: rTMS as an add-on treatment. Brain stimulation. 2020. doi:10.1016/j.brs.2020.09.010. PMID: 33002645.
BibTeX
@article{bagattini2020-33002645,
author = {Bagattini, C. and Zanni, M. and Barocco, F. and Caffarra, P. and Brignani, D. and Miniussi, C. and Defanti, C. A.},
title = {{Enhancing cognitive training effects in Alzheimer's disease: rTMS as an add-on treatment}},
journal = {Brain stimulation},
year = {2020},
doi = {10.1016/j.brs.2020.09.010},
pmid = {33002645},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2020.09.010}
}
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