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Attempts to promote smoking cessation have been variably successful, with an 85% relapse rate. Reasoning that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) would be effective by targeting the mesolimbic dopaminergic reward systems stimulated by nicotine, investigators in Israel used a stimulator with a modified H-coil that acted on deeper systems bilaterally, including the insula and deep prefrontal cortex, than standard rTMS. Two authors have financial interests in the manufacturer, which supported the study.
In the double-blind study, 115 smokers who had failed other treatments were randomized to high-frequency (10-Hz), low-frequency (1-Hz), or sham rTMS and to exposure or no exposure to smoking-related cues just prior to treatment. …