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Hearing voices (auditory verbal hallucinations [AVH]) affects most schizophrenia patients and contributes to substantial disability and lack of behavioral control. Because AVH has been associated with hyperactivity of the Wernicke area and its homologous region in the right temporal lobe, researchers randomized 83 schizophrenia patients with AVH to five sessions of real or sham repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) at low frequency (1 Hz) applied to one of these two brain areas. After five sessions, rTMS was applied to the other side. For another five sessions, it was applied to the side yielding the most improvement in AVH.
Overall, rTMS improved frequency of hallucinations and Clinical Global Impression ratings (secondary out…