Clinicians hope electric pulses to brain can treat addiction

Psychiatrists in Nigeria plan to adapt a regular treatment for depression unresponsive to medication – in cocaine use disorder and other forms of drug addiction. Known as Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, rTMS has been used for years to treat depression that does not respond to medication. rTMS uses an electromagnet placed on the scalp that […]

Psychiatrists in Nigeria plan to adapt a regular treatment for depression unresponsive to medication – in cocaine use disorder and other forms of drug addiction.
Known as Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, rTMS has been used for years to treat depression that does not respond to medication.
rTMS uses an electromagnet placed on the scalp that generates pulses, which are delivered to parts of the brain that control mood.
Sustained reduction in activity in the part of the brain stimulated has been recorded in treatment programmes to manage chronic depression, rehabilitation of stroke survivors, migraine, sleep problems and anxiety.
Experts hope to see the same benefits in treating addiction in people abusing multiple substances, according to Dr Vincent Udenze, medical director of Synapse Services, a mental health and drug rehabilitation centre.
Cocaine use disorder affects up to 21 million people worldwide, and getting an effective psychological or medication treatment is difficult. Relapse rates after discharge is high, and getting a war forward is a global problem for families and clinicians.
“For some parents, they have been to different rehab centres worldwide and just when they think their son/daughter is ok, another major relapse occurs. Some parents have adopted the “sidon dey look strategy” implying a sense of helplessness and possible hopelessness,” says Udenze.
rTMS is in use in Egypt and South Africa, but Synapse, at its Lagos and Abuja centres, hopes to find the list of rehab centres using the procedure by June’s end.
It will “hopefully provide a major breakthrough in treatment of some addiction and neurological cases,” Udenze told a roundtable group on rehab services in Lagos.
Addiction experts using rTMS gather in Italy later in June but dealers in rTMS will run trainings for neurologists, psychiatrist, physiotherapists, neurosurgeons, psychologists to handle treatment.
Meanwhile, the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria is looking to generate local research and protocols to make rTMS affordable.