Therapeutic Noninvasive Brain Stimulation in Alzheimer’s Disease

Title:Therapeutic Noninvasive Brain Stimulation in Alzheimer’s Disease

Volume: 14 Issue: 4

Author(s): Irene Gonsalvez, Roey Baror, Peter Fried, Emiliano Santarnecchi and Alvaro Pascual-Leone

Affiliation:

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, transcranial magnetic stimulation, TMS, tDCS, dementia, noninvasive brain stimulation, NBS.

Abstract: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a looming public health crisis that currently lacks an effective treatment. Noninvasive Brain Stimulation (NBS), particularly transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), offers a promising alternative approach to pharmacological interventions for an increasing number of neurological and psychiatric conditions. The aim of this review is summarize data from therapeutic trials of NBS in AD and other dementing illnesses.

Despite the potential of NBS, there is limited theoretical framework and a lack of guidelines for its applications to AD. Several published clinical trials failed to report key parameters of the interventions thus limiting the utility of the study to assess efficacy and safety. Our review concludes with some suggestions for future studies aimed to advance research into NBS as a potential treatment for the symptoms and disabilities caused by AD and to enable comparison of results across trials. Ultimately, appropriately powered, and controlled, multi-site randomized clinical trials will be needed to evaluate the therapeutic potential of NBS in AD.

Cite this article as:

Gonsalvez Irene, Baror Roey, Fried Peter, Santarnecchi Emiliano and Pascual-Leone Alvaro, Therapeutic Noninvasive Brain Stimulation in Alzheimer’s Disease, Current Alzheimer Research 2017; 14 (4) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1567205013666160930113907

DOI https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1567205013666160930113907	Print ISSN 1567-2050
Publisher Name Bentham Science Publisher	Online ISSN 1875-5828