Magnetic Brain Stimulation May Help Smokers Kick the Habit

Researchers have made a breakthrough discovery in helping smokers quit their addictive habit.

Magnetic brain stimulation with a sensory cue was associated with reduced smoking rates and improved quit rates among heavy smokers unaffected by prior therapy, researchers reported.

The findings, presented at the Neuroscience 2013 conference, suggested the technique could help people cut down or quit completely. The new therapy uses brain magnetic stimulation, referred to as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Researchers found that heavy smokers who underwent a form of high frequency TMS had higher success rates in quitting.

The researchers focused on stimulating the prefrontal cortex and the insula, which are the two brain areas associated with nicotine addiction.

"This is a new approach to the [tobacco] problem," Abraham Zangen, a neuroscientist at Ben Gurion University in Israel who led the study, told the Guardian. "These are heavy smokers who could not stop smoking before."

The team at Ben Gurion University in Israel targeted magnetic fields at two regions of the brain associated with addiction to nicotine - the prefrontal cortex and the insula cortex.

The 115 regular smokers in the study were split into three groups and for 13 days they were given high-frequency TMS, low-frequency TMS or no treatment at all. The participants all smoked at least 20 cigarettes per day - and had all tried to stop smoking before by using at least two different kinds of treatments, such as nicotine supplements, cognitive behavioral therapy, or anti-smoking drugs like Chantix or Zyban.