HMS Studies Stroke Treatment

It usually takes more than a touch of magic to cure an illness, but a Harvard Medical School (HMS) study has found that wand-waving may actually help stroke patients recover.

The study of 10 stroke patients, conducted by HMS neurologist Dr. Felipe Fregni and co-authors at the medical school, found that placing magnetic wands over the heads of stroke patients can help them to regain lost motor skills.

The non-invasive therapy, called transcranial magnetic simulation (TMS), uses a figure eight-shaped coil to deliver weak, pulsating electrical currents to specific areas of the brain. When the therapy is applied for 10 to 20 minutes to the brain’s motor cortex, the magnetic field generated by the electrical currents “improved motor functions in stroke patients,” Fregni said.

When healthy, the two sides of the brain communicate with each other. After a stroke, when one side of the brain becomes damaged, the healthy half of the brain becomes overactive and inhibits the signals from the damaged half. This imbalance in brain activity can lead to the loss of motor skills. TMS therapy aims to restore that balance by decreasing activity in the healthy half.

In the study, the patients were asked to perform simple tasks like pressing a button in response to signals displayed on a computer screen. Patients treated with TMS showed up to a 50 percent improvement in their reaction time, while those patients who received a placebo treatment did not show any significant improvement.

Since the publication of his study in the journal Neurology in May, Fregni has tested a longer variation of the procedure on 16 additional patients.

“Finding the right dosage for treatment is important,” he said. “The effect of one session is short lasting, we need to find the parameters needed for a better outcome.”

Fregni is still analyzing the data from the new study, but he said the preliminary results are promising.

“The magnitude of the improvement effect was larger compared to the previous treatment,” he said.

However, Fregni said the effectiveness of the treatment decreases with the size of the brain legion caused by the stroke. He added that more testing will be needed before TMS can be approved by the Food and Drug Administration for clinical use.

Fregni said it will take at least another five to 10 years before the final results of the study can be validated but that it could offer treatment could to patients who have few options available.

“Especially for stroke patients, there are not that many treatment options available,” he said. “For instance,” he said “physical therapy can be effective as it is an attempt to activate the affected area of the brain through peripheral motor stimulation. In such circumstance, TMS treatment can enhance this effect as it can actually guide this brain activation change through direct neuronal stimulation. Therefore, in the future, an effective treatment for stroke might be the use of TMS coupled with physical therapy.”