Antiepileptic Effects of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

We studied the antiepileptic effects of repeptitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in two epilepsy model rodents. In the genetically epileptic EL mice, low-frequency rTMS (1Hz, 100% of motor threshold (MT), 300 pulses/day, once a week) inhibitied the development of epileptogenesis transiently. On the other hand, in the pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-induced convulsive Wistar rats, rTMS (0.5 Hz, 200 % of MT, 1000 pulses, applied 30 minutes before PTZ injection) significantly extended the latency to the onset of seizures and decrease the number of the development of status epilepticus. Our results suggest that low-frequency rTMS has the antiepileptic effects, but the efficacy is varied according to the epilepsy model animals we used.