Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as a Potential Tool to Reduce Sexual Arousal

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Clinical Trial

Official title:

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as a Potential Tool to Reduce Sexual Arousal

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04209309
• Other study ID #: 13-101-0117
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: October 1, 2014
• Est. completion date: July 1, 2016

Study information

• Verified date: December 2019
• Source: University of Regensburg
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Hyper- and hyposexuality occur frequently in a variety of psychiatric disorders and are difficult to treat. While there is meta-analytic evidence for the significant effect of non-invasive brain stimulation on drug and food craving, no study has investigated the potential of this technique to modulate sexual behavior. The efficacy of a single session of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left or right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) to reduce sexual arousal was tested against a sham stimulation.

To test this hypothesis, we employed a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled crossover study design. Nineteen healthy male participants received high-frequency rTMS over the left DLPFC, high-frequency rTMS over the right DLPFC and sham rTMS (each 10 Hz; 110% resting motor threshold; 60 trains with 50 pulses) in randomized and counterbalanced order with a one-week interval between stimulation sessions to avoid carryover effects. Participants were exposed to neutral and sexual cues before and after each intervention and rated their sexual arousal after each block of cue presentation.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 19
• Est. completion date: July 1, 2016
• Est. primary completion date: July 1, 2016
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Male
• Age group: 18 Years to 50 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• motor threshold below 55%

• informed consent

• male

• 18-50 years

• heterosexual

• right handedness

Exclusion Criteria:

• contraindication for TMS

• somatic or mental illnesses

• intake of psychoactive drugs

• left handedness

• homo- or bisexual

• paraphilia

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Intervention

Device:
• repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
n/a

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Regensburg

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Change of sexual arousal	short 10-item version of the Affect and Arousal Scale, which captures perceived genital, autonomic and psychological sexual arousal as well as state sexual desire	immediately before and after the single session of rTMS