Motor cortex transcranial magnetic stimulation to reduce intractable postherpetic neuralgia with poor response to other threapies: Report of two cases

Figure 1 Case results. A: Case 1; B: Case 2. Motor cortex rTMS is able to reduce pain conditions, negative emotions, as well as sleep quality in two cases with intractable postherpetic neuralgia when first-line drug and radiofrequency therapies had no clear benefits. VAS: Visual analogue scale; McGill: McGill Pain Questionnaire; Depression: Hamilton Depression Scale (24 items); Anxiety: Hamilton Anxiety Scale (17 items); PDQ-D: Perceived Deficits Questionnaire-Depression; MMSE: Mini-mental State Examination; PSQI: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.

Figure 2  A patient treated by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation.