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

December 19, 2019 updated by: Berthold Langguth, MD, Ph.D., University of Regensburg

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.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

19

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 50 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Male

Description

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

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: leDLPFC
single session rTMS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 15 min (60 trains with 50 stimuli; 10 sec intertrain interval; 10 Hz; 110% RMT; 3000 pulses; coil positioning over the 10-20 EEG coordinate position F3)
Device: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation
Experimental: riDLPFC
single session rTMS of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 15 min (60 trains with 50 stimuli; 10 sec intertrain interval; 10 Hz; 110% RMT; 3000 pulses; coil positioning over the 10-20 EEG coordinate position F4)
Device: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation
Sham Comparator: shamDLPFC
single session sham rTMS over the medial prefrontal cortex for 15 min (60 trains with 50 stimuli; 10 sec intertrain interval; 10 Hz; 110% RMT; 3000 pulses; coil positioning over the midline with tilted coil)
Device: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change of sexual arousal
Time Frame: immediately before and after the single session of rTMS
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

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Regensburg

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

October 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2016

Study Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 17, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 19, 2019

First Posted (Actual)

December 24, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

December 24, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 19, 2019

Last Verified

December 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 13-101-0117

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

IPD Plan Description

Not allowed based on ethics vote.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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