Because the reliability of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in treating poststroke cognitive impairment has not been convincingly demonstrated, we systematically examined the effectiveness of this regimen with 2 protocols.
MethodsWe randomly allocated 41 patients with poststroke cognitive impairment to receive 5 Hz rTMS (n＝11), intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS; n＝15) or sham stimulation (n＝15). Each group received 10 stimulation sessions over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. We performed the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) and the Beck Depression Inventory at baseline and after the intervention.
ResultsThe 5 Hz rTMS group showed significantly greater improvement than the sham group in RBANS total score (P＝0.006), attention (P＝0.001) and delayed memory (P