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POWER OF ATTRACTION

Recent research indicates that magnetic stimulation to the brain may work to curb addictive tendencies in humans, according to research covered in a recent Smithsonian.com article. Researchers tested transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in humans in an attempt to curb cocaine addiction. The treatment used magnets on cocaine addicts for ve consecutive days, followed by once-a-week treatments for three weeks. The number of participants was only 29, but the ndings were still encouraging: Of the 13 people who received an all-TMS protocol, 10 exhibited what researchers determined to be substantial improvement in controlling cocaine cravings. “I have met with these patients, I have seen them, I have seen their families,” says Antonello Bonci, a neuropsychopharmacologist and National Institute on Drugs researcher who co-authored the study, to Smithsonian.com. “They are alive, they are well . . . something has clearly happened to these people.” Researchers Think Magnets Can Help With Drug Addiction Impulses

Magnetic Stimulation

The Mayo Clinic de nes TMS as “a noninvasive procedure that uses magnetic elds to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to improve symptoms of depression. TMS is typically used when other depression treatment hasn’t been effective.” It works through an electromagnetic coil that is placed directly on a person’s head, near the forehead. The electromagnetic simulation painlessly delivers a magnetic pulse that stimulates nerves in the PFC—the part of the brain also involved with mood control and depression, as well as addiction. “We know that addictive drugs change many, many brain regions, as many as 90 or more, and these regions are organized into overlapping circuits. We have no idea how, given this enormous complexity, just shutting down or tuning up one single region can produce such profound effects,” Bonci says, adding that drug addicts “are often unable to switch from a counterproductive behavior to another, more bene cial, one. They get stuck in repetitive, compulsive behaviors, such as using drugs.” Bonci tells Smithsonian.com that he is currently in the process of launching a larger, placebo-controlled, double-blind study of cocaine addicts. “This is a pilot study—we have a lot of work to do,” says Bonci. “I think that we will know, in just a few years, if this will become an accepted treatment.”