Abstract
BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a multifactorial neurodegenerative disease with a high prevalence worldwide, leading to motor and non-motor symptoms. Moreover, PD presents a progressive aggravation alongside time, the middle and late patients in PD requires the use of a variety of anti-Parkinson's drugs with obvious side effects, which bring serious impact on the quality of life of patients. In recent years, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), as a kind of non-invasive neuromodulation therapy, has drawn increasing interest from neurologists, and has been effectively utilized to alleviate both motor and non-motor symptoms of PD. However, the treatment protocols and therapeutic effects of rTMS for PD patients are inconsistent. This meta-analysis aims to systematically evaluate the safety and efficacy of rTMS therapy in patients with PD.
METHODS: We will perform a comprehensive search in the following electronic databases: PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, EMBASE, and Cochrane, without language restrictions, from their inception to September 2024. This review protocol was formulated according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) guidelines. The Cochrane risk of bias tool is utilized to assess the risk of bias. Finally, the effect size was expressed by a standardized mean difference (SMD) with a 95% confidence interval (CI).
RESULTS: A total of 45 randomized controlled trials were included. The results of enrolled studies indicated that both primary and secondary indicators had improved. Subgroup analysis showed that high-frequency rTMS (HF-rTMS) targeting the supplementary motor area (SMD = - 0.56; 95 %CI = [-0.77, -0.36]; p < 0.00001), primary motor cortex (SMD: -1.65; 95 %CI = [-2.35, -0.95]; p < 0.00001), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) (SMD: -0.68; 95 %CI = [-1.16, -0.21]; p = 0.005) yielded a significant reduction in motor UPDRS-III scores, compared to the sham group. In addition, HF-rTMS over left DLPFC or intermittent theta burst stimulation over left DLPFC may benefit cognition. Furtherly, the subgroup analysis of the Beck Depression Inventory scores indicated HF-rTMS over the left DLPFC was a beneficial treatment for depressive symptoms in PD.
CONCLUSION: The meta-analysis showed that rTMS was effective and safe in the treatment of PD, improving motor function (such as a decrease in UPDRS-III total scores, subscores of UPDRS-III, and FOG-Q scores) in patients with PD and leading to improvement in cognitive function and depression (such as an increase in MocA scores and a decrease BDI scores). Although the results of the subgroup analysis provide a valuable reference for the selection of rTMS for clinical application, further larger multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled studies with a large number of participants are still required to validate these results.