The Combination of rTMS and Pharmacotherapy on In Vitro Models: A Mini-Review.

Background Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that is being actively explored as a potential therapeutic modality various neuropsychiatric disorders, such as depression, neuropathic pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and neurodegenerative disorders, including the Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved rTMS for the treatment of major depression, migraine-associated headaches, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The fact that a significant proportion of patients suffering from these disorders fail to respond to current pharmacological interventions indicates the need for alternative therapies like rTMS. Objective The objective was to find and summarize all studies combining the use of rTMS and pharmacological interference order to facilitate future studies. Methods The results of studies combining the use of rTMS with pharmacological interference vitro were focused on. The PubMed database was searched using the terms rTMS, repetitive, transcranial, magnetic, stimulation, in vitro, in vivo, cell cultures untilMarch 2019 and 7 eligible studies were found. Results Overall results show a synergistic effect of rTMS and pharmacotherapy vitro with additive effectiveness, better prognosis, and superior potential management. Conclusion The limited amount of knowledge denotes the need for additional vitro studies on the combination of rTMS and pharmacotherapy, which could be extended to vivo studies and ultimately help design clinical trials so as to improve the therapeutic management of patients with a wide array of neuropsychiatric disorders.