Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to Treat Essential Tremor

Link to Study: Badran et al. 2016

This is the first randomized controlled trial of low frequency rTMS of the pre-SMA for treating ET. Our results demonstrate that 15 daily sessions of low frequency (1 Hz) rTMS to the pre-SMA rTMS produces a significant (26.11%) reduction in TRS from baseline in patients with ET, whereas sham rTMS showed a smaller (18.82%) reduction. These gains persisted at 4- and 8-week follow-up in only the active condition. Using these data, we are able to calculate a dCohen magnitude of 0.49 (moderate effect). Given this effect size, double-blind, randomized controlled trial involving two treatment groups (active and sham) and an 80% power would need to recruit 134 total subjects (67 in each condition) in order to find between group significant results.