J Korean Neuropsychiatr Assoc.  2001 Jul;40(4):734-741.

A Case of Treatment of the Drug-Resistant Auditory Hallucinations of a Schizophrenic Patient with Continuously Application of rTMS and ECT

• Kwon JS
• Jeon HJ
• Youn T

Abstract

The Persistent auditory hallucinations may provoke the uncomfortable feeling and can be dangerous according to its contents in treatment-resistant schizophrenic patients. Previous functional brain imaging studies on auditory hallucinations reported that the abnormal activations of the normal auditory pathway and the activations of the left upper temporal lobe were found while patients were hallucinating voices. Base on the these findings, we treated a female schizophrenic patient with persistent auditory hallucinations that were treatment-refractory with rTMS and the ECT continuously while she was on the drug treatment. The total amount of pulses applied in each trial ranged from 240 to 1000pulses. Fourteen trials were done and resulted in decrease by 30% in the subject severity of auditory hallucinations and the improvement of the affect. Two weeks after the completion of rTMS trials, nine trials of ECT were administered which leaded to complete disappearance of auditory hallucinations. This result suggest that ECT is more effective than rTMS in treating persistent auditory hallucinations in treatment-resistant schizophrenic patients.

Keyword

Transcranial magnetic stimulation; TMS; ECT; Hallucination; Schizophrenia

MeSH Terms

Auditory Pathways
Female
Functional Neuroimaging
Hallucinations*
Humans
Schizophrenia
Temporal Lobe
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Voice