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Transcranial magnetic stimulation alleviates truncal ataxia in spinocerebellar degeneration
  1. Y Shiga1,
  2. T Tsuda1,
  3. Y Itoyama1,
  4. H Shimizu2,
  5. K-I Miyazawa3,
  6. K Jin4,
  7. T Yamazaki5
  1. 1Department of Neurology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, 1–1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980–8574, Japan
  2. 2Department of Neurology, Yamagata National Hospital, Japan
  3. 3Department of Neurology, Kohnan Hospital, Japan
  4. 4Department of Neurology, Miyagi National Hospital, Japan
  5. 5Department of Radiology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Japan
  1. Correspondence to:
 Dr Y Shiga;
 yshiga{at}neurol.med.tohoku.ac.jp

https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.72.1.124

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    Spinocerebellar degeneration is an inherited or acquired neurodegenerative disorder characterised by steadily progressive cerebellar ataxia, dysarthria, and gait disturbance. These symptoms restrict daily activities. However, no satisfactory therapy has been established. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), originally introduced to the medical field to evaluate the function of the CNS, is recently becoming a therapeutic tool for neuropsychiatric disorders, such as major depression1 and Parkinson's disease.2 We also reported the efficacy of TMS for inherited spinocerebellar degeneration.3 We now report here a placebo controlled trial of TMS over the cerebellum for patients with spinocerebellar degeneration.

    Seventy four patients with spinocerebellar degeneration gave written informed consent to participate in this study, which was approved by the ethics committee of Tohoku University. No patient had a history of seizures or any abnormalities established by EEG. They also had no orthopaedic problems. Thirty nine patients, aged from 27 to 76 years (19 men and 20 women), were assigned to active stimulation, and the other 35 patients, aged from 38 to 76 years (25 men and 11 women), were assigned to sham stimulation. They were divided based on the date when they were admitted to our hospitals. The age, disease duration (unpaired t test), disease type (χ2 test), and disease severity (unpaired t test) were matched between the two groups. Disease types were divided into two groups, cerebellar type (sporadic and hereditary cortical cerebellar atrophy including spinocerebellar atrophy (SCA) 6) and olivopontocerebellar atrophy (OPCA) type (sporadic OPCA, SCA1, SCA3, etc). Transcranial magnetic stimulation over the cerebellum was administered at almost the same time in the evening once a …

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